Lee Johnson

Propaganja is a 22-minute, modern day Reefer Madness satire, which spans into an eight episode series. The story surrounds around the life, both as a business and a place of personal interaction, at Best Buds dispensary in Portland, Oregon. The goal is to ultimately create informative and entertaining programming about marijuana. I am one of the writers who produced the pilot Propaganja. From the title itself, the project describes the contradictory duality of marijuana: the positive and negative propaganda surrounding its purpose. This forms a grey area that my co-writers and I have explored creatively. I initially did not know too much about the weed prior writing this script, and I am fascinated by its ambiguity; between being a drug, remedy, and how it translates as a commodity in today’s society. I want this show to be educational, and not simply a “stoner comedy.” Propaganja emphasizes the misunderstandings about weed and stoner culture, and sheds light on the medical benefits that it can provide. When Paul opened up Best Buds, we acquired so much knowledge about what it takes to start a dispensary, how to sustain it, and the laws to abide by. As the series continues, we want to show the reality of maintaining a shop in the cannabis industry conjoined with the surreal atmosphere and absurd interactions that marijuana yields from these characters. Much like life itself, the pilot plays out these contradictions in a very human, comedic way for all audiences.