Marijuana Cartoon 'The Haag' Released On YouTube By Harborside Health Center

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Harborside Health Center has released a whimsical political satire, "The Haag." First performed as a live play in front of Oakland City Hall last summer at an Obama demonstration co-sponsored by CA NORML, the YouTube video depicts the federal actions against the state's medical marijuana dispensaries in storybook fashion.

For the last several years, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern California District, Melinda Haag, has waged a brutal offensive against medical cannabis patients and the dispensaries where they get their medicine.

This offensive has closed hundreds of state-legal, locally compliant dispensaries in Northern California and threatens others like Harborside Health Center. Oaksterdam University in Oakland was raided on April 2, 2012, by DEA and IRS agents.

The Haag is meant to be a humorous meditation on a very serious subject. Inspired by Dr. Seuss and conceived by activist-attorney James Anthony, The Haag was written and illustrated by Goose Duarte, a.k.a. "Dr. Geuss."

The video is directed by Richard Parks, narrated by Andrew DeAngelo, animated by Luke Graves, and produced by Steve DeAngelo and Harborside.

"We could have made a documentary that depicted how stressed out and worried we are, how petrified our families are, not to mention our employees," said Andrew DeAngelo, director of operations for Harborside Health Center.

"Being in the cross-hairs of the Feds is scary as hell. Fortunately, one of the healing properties of the cannabis plant its ability to help us see things from different perspectives. Humor is a childlike quality everyone needs in their adult lives, yet it is often misplaced. Cannabis restores us. That is the lesson and the spirit in which The Haag was created."

About Harborside Health Center

Harborside Health Center is the nation's largest not-for-profit model medical cannabis dispensary with locations in Oakland and San Jose, California. The collective was co-founded in 2006 by national cannabis leader Steve DeAngelo, and serves approximately 100,000 registered patients.

A landmark facility, HHC offers patients free holistic health services, lab-tested medicine, a low-income care package program, substance misuse support and education, while strictly complying with state and local laws regarding medical cannabis. For more details, visit the Oakland medical cannabis dispensary online at www.harborsidehealthcenter.com.

SOURCE Harborside Health Center