for four hours outside Kinshasa we're
about to enter a weave field that may
contain either Congo red or Congo black
because it's so close to the city we
don't know if the genetics will been
contaminated but this is our first stop
on the journey and be interesting to see
what these feel to be in the hunt for
the original Congolese land race has
been going on for decades and if this
train is discovered it could mean a
potential goldmine for these Western
seed breeders that's the fields
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that here's the ganja but it is
very young this is five weeks old it's
crap finish why is this tiny fielded
immature plants not satisfying to you
number one we need seeds we need to
collect seeds underneath flower that is
be pollinated to red seeds selection if
you see very big field you can check
uniformity you can check box you can
check diseases you can check fungus most
important you can smoke this stuff since
their partnership again 20 years ago
arjan in Franco's cannabis strains of
won countless awards and gained them
huge amounts of fame earning them the
title kings of cannabis and it's made
them both very rich today all of their
breeding enterprises Amsterdam coffee
shops and seed distribution centers
combined are worth millions of dollars
they're experts at scouring the world to
find unique strains of cannabis that
they call land races without the unique
genetics of these land races Arjen and
Franco could have never built their
cannabis Empire this is roughly 30 years
of work going all over the planets
Argentina Australia Brazil these are all
land races
Landrus by definition is something
industry inbreeding with itself for a
very long time this is a building bricks
of modern meaning of creating new
cannabis trains
Landrus is the beginning of everything
and they believe Equatorial Africa holds
genetically unique strings that could
revolutionize cannabis the Equatorial
Africa is one of the most preserved
because of the Wars a lack of
infrastructure political unrest all this
situation created isolation so that's
where we're going
DRC we headed to Kinshasa to enlist the
help of some local Rastafarian REO our
guides had heard stories of huge
untouched wheat fields two days down the
river that had never been seen by
outsiders but one thing was clear the
mission wasn't going to be easy
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our journey started in a city of Kissin
Donnie where we board in our boats there
is no way that somebody has come here in
the last 30 years bringing seeds or
bringing anything that can contaminate
this land rise no way you traveling down
a river by boat doesn't sound too bad at
first until you realize you're traveling
on a hollowed-out tree trunk for 2 days
and 2 nights
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oh my god there are so many of them oh
my god all of the kids
since the discovery of cannabis humans
have been trying to cultivate and
improve the plant molding it to their
own needs Mariana has been traveling
with men since 2000 years before Christ
through the path of human migration
unique land races have emerged around
the globe most land races from countries
like Thailand and India have already
been discovered but the plants in Congo
are largely unexplored and may have
untapped genetic potential and with the
US market opening up seeds in Ariana and
Franco find here could be sold in the
states where their products were once
illegal for 30 years we've been running
away from America and now we can run
there
it's a 180 degrees how much money do you
think you could make from the seeds that
you will collect on this track we think
we are able to turn over billions in the
future with this new emerging market
worldwide when I hold one of those seeds
in my hand I will not see a seed on my
hand I will see thousands of people
getting high and businesses have been in
fortunes made and medicines created
seriously man's potential once you do
you think we'll find that seed oh yeah
we entered a small village that was
ruled by a local chief we would need to
ask his permission to see any field we
are very thankful that we can be here
and we hope you can buy some food for
the village or some goats or you know
for the whole village you must use
subpoena
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but it wasn't enough just to pay one
chief they had to meet and pay manager
the plan change song called Sagar Honda
and they befriended local police and
military as well and receive many
blessings with a gesture of trust to
allow somebody to shave my entire body
and his ass Tijeras afterwards we were
met with nearly every conceivable
obstacle my fixer cabo has malaria the
captain at the head of the boat keeps
looking for potentially deadly
hippopotamuses and crocodiles this is
all turning out to be much more
difficult and extreme than I expected
see see on the Bob Bashara sofa on the
other tonight the drivers they don't
want to continue to drive they want to
abandon a space quicksands thank you
very much but everywhere we went it
seemed as if the fields have been cut or
were too young to produce seeds or had
mysteriously disappeared traveling for
five days to get to this field and
planes on motorcycles and canoes put in
cars it's been an extremely long and
difficult journey and this will be the
first real field that we see the bounce
ler effect book with the grandma tool
and grant consider the plan you put what
the terminal America Shelley dokie angry
barbarous she's a biscuit easy like
sociality
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we could only hope that this field is
the real thing and not another dead end
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this is it
we this is for seven days of
but this is it it's been a long journey
it's and a painful long at times
beautiful journey finally made it to a
field full mature Congolese sativas and
they are healthy and beautiful and large
and they'll have mature seeds
I freaking suck Eva Wow the market
weights in a few natural we compliment
natural DC with genja and use it as a
medicine
Giavotella mcafee Peru let me ask you we
say that pretty much aha
it says that they use it as a
recreational stimulant how many people
in the world have these seeds do you
think who who has come here to collect
this who nobody from real cannabis
companies has been collecting this
otherwise we would know about it
I mean no one has this bra we have this
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Ariana and Franco collected seeds of a
unique Congolese land raise and stand to
make millions of dollars on it a fact
that wasn't lost on the locals who is
like the village realized how much the
potential value of this local mead field
really was obviously you've given to
people small amounts of money along the
way which are large amounts of money for
them yeah
but then if you make a hundred thousand
or a million dollars off of these seeds
did I get some percentage of that profit
nope that's how it works in our business
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tensions flare over the value of the
seeds but the real work to find out
exactly what they contained had just
begun in Switzerland they've been
growing the seeds we've brought back
from Congo we're gonna take a sample of
one of the buds just give me something
unique
the chemistry of this particular strand
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what's almost exactly the same and yeah
yeah yeah the most important thing is
that we chose the best plants in Congo
and so from that mix of genes mix them
together made an f1 inbred and then from
that f1 inbred you reproduce the land
race now is the moment of truth to do
the chemical analysis and really figure
out what it is about these plans to make
some unique today they're hoping to find
an unusual cannabinoid known as THC v cv
has been found previously in African
sativas and it's been proposed as a
treatment for cognitive disorders and
diabetes it's all finished so we have 8%
of THC inside yeah and 1.1 percent of
THC yeah that's really I mean above 1%
is I've never seen one per sensor and in
this lines so that's pretty good that's
pretty damn good man do th t v-- is a
chemical that's one of the rarer
cannabinoids I don't know any strength
that there's 1% THC THC gives you the
munchies the HCV does the inverse it
could actually mean that it would stop
your hunger which could be hugely
beneficial for instance for to treat
obesity so there's a lot of potential
holidays from the seed all from these
seeds
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you have the opportunity to do this kind
of tensional it's worth the trip it's
worth the efforts going into the jungle
fighting your way through driving your
way through and yet you have the reward
thing here you're looking at it yeah
this is it you know ultimately if you go
to these secluded places and you bring
back the genetics it's probably a good
thing but at the same time you might be
able to understand how there is this
perception that outsiders have come
they've recognized that we have
something in value and they're coming to
take it from us and what kind of
compensation are we gonna have if you
look at how the pharmaceutical industry
has been operating in the last hundred
years they've been strain hunting as
well and from these medicinal plants
they synthesize medicines we are doing
exactly the same thing for cannabis to
make sure that the rest of the planet
can benefit as well as they do
Franco returned to Congo to work with
local farmers and government to begin a
campaign for the legalization of
cannabis in Africa unfortunately while
there he contracted malaria which took
his life
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you
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