Sand Hill Interns

Summary



Sand Hill Interns is the first in a series of novels about marijuana and the turmoil associated with its legalization. Alex Hadjitakis, a recently minted Ph.D. biochemist, and Eleni Xanthiou, a second year MBA student, both at Stanford, are hired as summer interns by CTT. Investors in CTT include several Sand Hill Road VCs and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel venture fund. CTT’s primary goal is to develop pure, highly potent, and addictive marijuana derivatives referred to as S-Marijuana. This material would dominate the multi-billion dollar global marijuana market.

The project involves marijuana-associated fieldwork in Brazil, Peru, and Turkey. The fieldwork has two objectives. The first is to determine if S-Marijuana is real, and if so, to obtain samples. The second goal is developing a model to estimate global marijuana supply and demand.

Former East German scientists are working with a Columbian drug cartel to develop S-Marijuana in a jungle laboratory in Brazil. S-Marijuana is thought to form by the growth of a psilocybin-related mold (magic mushroom) on marijuana leaves. Drug cartels, pharmaceutical, alcohol, tobacco and venture capital firms, as well as global government agencies, have major S-Marijuana initiatives.

Alex’s and Eleni’s visits to Brazil, Peru, and Turkey involve them in major gang violence. CTT’s bodyguards, Gloria, Antonio and Hassan, provide critical security. A small sample of S-Marijuana is obtained in Brazil. Upon smoking it, Alex has a powerful reaction, magnitudes higher than that obtained from traditional marijuana. Another sample of S-Marijuana is provided by a Peruvian medicine man.  A drug cartel knows that Alex and Eleni secured samples of S-Marijuana and attempts to obtain them.

A love triangle develops between Alex, his girlfriend Nancy, a Johns Hopkins medical resident, and Eleni, who is of Greek descent like Alex. The novel touches on the straight and gay sexual continuum. There are many sexually explicit and edgy encounters. Stavros, a diner owner and sophisticated investor, mentors Alex and Eleni.