How The Pot Brothers At Law Became Such A Viral Success—An Exclusive Interview With Craig & Marc Wasserman

How The Pot Brothers At Law® Became Such A Viral Success—An Exclusive Interview With Craig & Marc Wasserman

Craig and Marc Wasserman aka the “Pot Brothers At Law”® are Southern California born-and-raised cannabis business and criminal defense lawyers that have gone on to reach estimable stardom. Since the mid-90s in the Prop 215 days, they’ve slowly grown to have their hands in a bevy of legal matters supporting the furtherment of the industry. Within the last five or so years, they have taken the social media sphere by storm. They’ve done this with highly entertaining educational content, most notably their “Shut The Fuck Up Friday” segment.

Everything began skyrocketing for them after one of their notorious #STFUfriday posts went insanely viral around December two years ago. The Respect My Region Facebook page was actually responsible for the initial ballooning of the clip that took it from hundreds of thousands to millions of views in days.

The story that has led the Pot Brothers At Law to this pivotal moment of streamlined success in their career is worthy of film documentation. From where they began, neither of them would have expected to end up in the position they’re currently in.

There are numerous factors that have driven the brothers down their own paths that eventually became unified towards defending businesses in the burgeoning legal cannabis industry.

We sat down with Craig and Marc to fully learn how they’ve become such recognizable figures in cannabis, and honestly, the world. From developing their notorious script to the role of Craig’s son, the equally infamous J Cures of West Coast Cure, to Marc’s acting career, so many random facets came together to form their success.

Craig & Marc’s Separate Journeys Into Law

Coming from more of a traditional lawyer’s background, Craig Wasserman graduated from law school in ‘86, and then passed the bar in ‘87. Even though he had already been a law clerk for years, Craig formally began practicing on June 17, 1987.

For the next four to five years he was bouncing around between firms, working for different partners. One day, after finishing a few jobs with two kids and another on the way, Craig made the decision to begin his own practice. “27 of my 33 years practicing law I’ve been on my own,” Craig said.

Craig Wasserman

Marc’s path to practicing law is a little different. Growing up aspiring to be an actor took him down a couple of avenues. These include work in theatre and film, as well as producing, writing, and directing independent films. You can find an extensive history of his work via IMDB. Somewhere along the way, he put his hand into studying law as well.

After passing the bar on his third attempt in 1996, Marc bounced his way into practicing. This was right when Prop 215 came out, and Marc was going to court for any case he could, eventually landing on criminal defense. One of the cases he picked up had to do with defending a criminal charge against cannabis. This is where everything starts to come together.

Marc Wasserman

J Cures’ Entry Into Medical Cannabis

Craig’s son, J Cures, the West Coast Cures cannabis mogul, plays an arguably crucial role in this entire story. Craig said, “my son began smoking at a young age. He said that he kept smoking “despite getting expelled from middle school in the 7th grade and getting grounded.” Craig said that “he was always naturally high strung, and would tell me it calmed him down.”

In a few short years, J was asking his dad to help him get set up to start growing medically for patients. “We set him up; we got into cannabis law to make sure he had a defense if busted,” Craig said. Not long after this was up and running, Marc came along.

J Cures

Marc said his strategy for coming up as a lawyer was to find an experienced attorney in that field and then the client would get two attorneys for the price of one. That way he could always over-deliver.

“Whatever anyone asked me I did it. After about 5-7 years I didn’t need help anymore and I kind of landed on criminal defense.” “So I ran into my brother and asked what he was doing to defend his son’s grow operation,” Marc went on. Around this time they teamed up and Marc joined Craig’s practice.

There was eventually a situation that took the brothers into court for J Cure’s legally operating grow. Craig said the “case got dismissed because he shut the fuck up. The cops lied about getting verbal consent.” Craig went on to say that “my son gave him [the cop] our card and didn’t consent to a search.” This was the first form of “the script” they preach on every #STFUfriday, and is still brandished on their business cards to give advice to people if they’ve been wrongfully detained.

How The Pot Brothers At Law Became Such A Viral Success—An Exclusive Interview With Craig & Marc Wasserman

Creating Their Instagram & Developing The Script©

Around this same time in the early 2000s, Craig said: “because of my son, we’re meeting people deep in the cannabis community.” He said they eventually became “known as cannabis attorneys to people deep in the culture for a while.” Five years in and J Cures calls his dad and says “I want you to go on Getting High With Adam Ill.”

So they did it and got pictures of the session that also had B-Real on it. Apparently, Craig’s son had been bugging them to start an Instagram page, “and it was 15-second clips back then,” they reminded me. “And that’s how the actual IG page was made (@pot_brothers_at_law,)” Craig said, “January 22, 2015, we did Adam Ill’s show and put it up on Instagram.”

Then the question became: “what do we post?” The brothers then said they “started posting some legal shit, some pictures with celebrities like B-Real.” Marc said: “so we came up with a series of How To’s on what to do if you have to talk with the cops.”

They brought up that there were a lot more instances of police shooting people during this time in California. “We began with a script to help people in California talk to the cops, then we realized it applied to everyone,” Marc said. “The cops have no need to search you anywhere.”

Marc’s Hollywood Background & Knack For Social Media

Combined with his experience writing for, and being on camera and working with technology, Marc has always been the force behind the Pot Brothers At Law’s social media and digital content. Marc said, “within 6-7 weeks on Instagram we had over 5k followers, and it took 8 years to get 5k on Facebook.”

“That’s when I had to figure out what Instagram was,” Marc said. After studying influencers and bigger pages he came up with his own method for organic growth. From December 25, 2015-18 “we amassed 125k followers on Instagram,” Marc said. “I had us everywhere but I wasn’t doing anything with it.”

Craig said, “we were speaking on consumption, B.o.B. was the first one to give us a shout out back then.” Craig went on, “my son got B.o.B. to go to a Secret Sesh in LA and that’s where big bro [his constituent] met him and then a few weeks later he posted a shout out.” They said admittedly there weren’t many older white guys on Instagram telling you to shut the fuck up while they roast weed.

How The Pot Brothers At Law Became Such A Viral Success—An Exclusive Interview With Craig & Marc Wasserman

STFUfriday™ Goes Viral

By 2018, the Pot Brothers At Law were moving full force with their #STFUfriday segment on their Instagram page. They had been doing it for a decent period at this point, but their new follower influx was slowing down. Respect My Region’s COO Joey Brabo actually found their video and reposted it to our Facebook page. Then, by mere coincidence, the video caught the attention of Roger Stone who shared the Facebook status. Then shit got crazy.

At the time, Marc said, “We had Pot Brothers At Law on Facebook with 722 followers.” The video blew up, moving from tens to hundreds of thousands of views overnight. By the next day, it was hitting millions.

“I got a notification from Facebook and then it started going crazy, and it took me 15 or 20 minutes to figure out what happened,” Marc said. “I saw the Roger Stone repost from RMR and then I stopped counting after 300 or 400 million views across all the platforms,” Marc said. “Cypress Hill did a repost of that video too that alone has 40 million views.” Craig said, “my son got us on Worldstar.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Brq4JXcl0Nk/

Netflix Series, Podcast & More

The brothers said that all of this viral attention “led to us getting a manager back around the beginning of 2019.” Marc said, “all these managers and agents hit us up and then 9 months ago my nephew called and said he had a manager who wanted to talk to us.”

Critical Content hit them up first, and they went through seven contracts, following them around at a festival, doing some shots at the office, and even making a sizzle reel. “But it didn’t work out,” Marc said.

Craig chimed in saying “my son always had the best weed and he was delivering to Wiz Khalifa. Then it dove-tailed into everything after he came to us with his manager.” Marc said, “now we have a lot of things opening up like a potential Netflix series, a podcast, and even more.” They told me the Cannabis Talk 101 podcast actually launches this 4/20 on iHeart radio and every other podcast streaming service.

How The Pot Brothers At Law Became Such A Viral Success—An Exclusive Interview With Craig & Marc Wasserman

Since really hitting the ground running as cannabis business lawyers in 2015, the Pot Brothers At Law have taken on anywhere from 1,000-1,500 cases. Craig said, “something always came in and we just kept moving on.” They’re getting to the point where they can basically become a household name for legal advice globally.

While still handling as many cases as possible, the brothers plan to eventually act as public figures and get out of the courtroom and continue captivating a global audience. If the Pot Brothers At Law have taught us anything, it’s that if you’re ever speaking to a police officer remember to STICK TO THE SCRIPT!

The SCRIPT©

“Why did you pull me over?”
“I’m not discussing my day”
“Am I being detained or am I free to go?©
(if detained) “I INVOKE THE 5TH!” then SHUT THE FUCK UP™

I do not consent to a search!
To any police officer or law enforcement personnel:
“I am invoking my 5th Amendment Miranda Rights and will only speak to you with my attorney present. Please allow me to contact my attorney.”

Visit The Pot Brothers At Law Website To Learn More

RAPPER WEED: WHICH RAPPERS HAVE CANNABIS PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET?
10 UNDERRATED FEMALE RAPPERS YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO RIGHT NOW
9 RAPPERS FROM DETROIT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS YEAR

FOR MORE MUSIC NEWS, FOLLOW RESPECT MY REGION ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER

TO HAVE A STORY FEATURED OR YOUR BRAND OR PRODUCTS REVIEWED, PLEASE EMAIL US.