High Price: The Luke Scarmazzo Story

At 26 years old, Luke had it all: a family, a music career, and businesses that were raking in so much cash he had to rent a home just to count and manage it. The only problem? The federal government saw what he did as drug dealing, and they really didn't appreciate the music video he made where he infamously raps "F*** the Feds" into the camera.

High Price is a thrilling journey into chasing the American Dream during a brief window when it was open to anyone willing to take the risk: the Wild West days of California's early medical marijuana markets. Luke Scarmazzo, a working-class kid from Modesto, California, started the first state-legal cannabis dispensary in the conservative Central Valley. From humble beginnings and hard work, it seemed Luke and his team of high school friends were on the verge of establishing generational wealth and getting in on the ground level of what would become a multi-billion dollar legal industry. This page-turning tale chronicles the rise and tragic fall of Luke's pioneering cannabis empire. Written from solitary confinement in a federal prison ten years later as a pardon languished on President Trump's desk, High Price is a mature and poignant reflection on poverty, opportunity, and the devastation left in the wake of America's War on Drugs.

"This book is likely to become a canon in the chronicles of cannabis history, and is required reading for anyone seeking to understand where humanity went wrong regarding marijuana prohibition and criminalization." - Jackie Bryant, journalist