Grass Valley, CA – Wade Laughter, the visionary Northern California cultivator who discovered and popularized the high-CBD strain Harlequin and spent nearly three decades advocating for safe, affordable cannabis medicine for patients, died Wednesday, June 4, 2025, surrounded by loving family at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. He was 72.

Born with an innate curiosity for the natural world, Wade followed a winding path: from U.S. Navy service to organic strawberry farming in North Carolina, before glaucoma altered the trajectory of his life. When prescription eye-drops jeopardized his health, he embraced the mantra that had carried him since childhood—“If I think I can, I can.” In 1996 he began growing his own cannabis in a Bay-Area closet armed with only 15 minutes of instruction, a single “Genius” clone, and the indomitable optimism he drew from The Little Engine That Could, his favorite book as a child.

What started as a personal health quest blossomed into a career that reshaped medical cannabis in California. Tireless experimentation with lighting, soil biology, and pest management led Wade to ground his indoor plants to the earth’s frequency—a leap of faith that revealed seven vibrant phenotypes of a then-unknown cultivar. He named it Harlequin for its kaleidoscopic leaves; laboratory tests soon confirmed its extraordinary cannabinoid profile: up to 13% CBD and minimal THC. At a time when CBD was scarcely recognized, Wade partnered with Project CBD co-founders Martin A. Lee and Fred Gardner to educate doctors, dispensaries, and patients worldwide.

Wade’s healing mission extended beyond cultivation. He co-founded Wonder Drops, an olive-oil tincture line crafted from his CBD-rich flowers, and launched the House of Harlequin, a nursery and educational project dedicated to making therapeutic genetics information available to both cultivators and patients. His workshops, conference talks, and gentle mentorship championed clean, soil-centered farming and integrated pest management long before they became industry standards.

In Nevada County, Wade helped change hearts and minds about the potential benefits of cannabis and championed cannabis cultivation regulations that represented the interests of patients first. He began his advocacy path as a member of a group of activists that defeated Measure W, an ordinance that would have prohibited cannabis cultivation in Nevada County. Measure W was defeated with 67% of the vote in 2016. Wade became part of the founding team of the Nevada County Cannabis Alliance, a trade organization that advocated for cannabis regulations. He served on its board until 2022. He continued to serve on the Political Strategy Committee of the organization until May of this year in spite of his illness.

“Wade was a friend and a leader who led with compassion, equality, and justice. He had the utmost respect for the plant and its healing power.” Said Diana Gamzon, Executive Director of the Cannabis Alliance. “He advocated for patients, but he was also a farmer. He believed in the power of the small farmer to cultivate plants that healed people. He always had the interests of our farming community at heart.”

Wade championed “Compassionate Cannabis” programs in Nevada County and statewide. Compassionate relief programs allow dispensaries to provide free medical cannabis and cannabis products to California residents in need.

On November 12, 2024, the Nevada County Supervisors awarded a Certificate of Recognition to Wade for his dedication as a medical cannabis researcher, mentor, educator, and advocate.

“He did more for the industry than anyone, and it wasn’t just about cannabis, it was about community,” said District 4 Board Supervisor Sue Hoek. “He taught me to see life through a different lens. He had a positive attitude about everything. I feel like I’m a better person for having known him.”

Friends and colleagues remember Wade for his encyclopedic knowledge of plant biology, his habit of greeting his “girls”, as he lovingly called his cannabis plants, each morning, and the way his eyes lit up whenever a patient told him their pain or seizures had eased. Though the financial rewards of small-scale medicine were modest at best, he measured success in lives improved: cancer patients finding relief, children with epilepsy reclaiming childhoods, and elders easing chronic aches.

“What was unique about Wade was that his kindness came from a deeper place, a foundation of true selflessness,” said Forrest Hurd, who founded the Caladrius Network, a nonprofit that provided education and medical cannabis medicine to families of catastrophically-ill children until Proposition 64, which legalized recreational cannabis in California, made it no longer legally possible to do so.

Forrest and Wade were peers, collaborators, and friends.

“Wade gave without personal agenda, without ego, and perhaps most rare of all, without expectation,” Hurd said. “There were no strings attached. No need for recognition, no quiet demand for gratitude or a return favor.”

Away from the greenhouse, Wade sought stillness in Vipassana retreats, delighted in mountain sunsets, and nurtured an ever-growing library of research on cannabinoids, terpenes, and the human endocannabinoid system. He never stopped asking how the plant might heal next.

Wade is survived by his beloved wife, Monica Senter, his daughters Ananda Nichols of Arnprior Ontario, Canada, and Shanti Kall of Portland, OR; his siblings Nancy Waddell of Hendersonville, SC, Barbara Allinson of Bel Air, Maryland, and Raymond Laughter of Jacksonville, FL; and four grandchildren: Madison and Hunter Nichols, and Vivian and Jackson Kall. Wade is remembered with love by an extended family of growers, patients, public servants, and the countless people whose wellness is rooted in his work. Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-wade-get-essential-home-care to cover medical bills.

“I’m a big fan of the truth,’ he once told this writer during countless hours of conversations and note-taking about his work and his crusade to help people. “The truth will open your heart, and once it’s cracked open, you can never go back.”

As his life’s journey showed, a single seed, tended with care, curiosity, and conviction, can change the landscape for all who follow. Wade Laughter planted many. May they continue to flower.

A celebration of Wade’s life is planned for July 12 in Nevada City, California.