Original subtitles

[narrator] After more than 80 years of prohibition

and 10 years of medical marijuana,

there are now more legal pot shops in Colorado

than McDonalds and Starbucks combined.

[lively music]

And, uh, if you look this way,

and look at the way the shape of the skull

is cut out and the whites, uh,

and you can see the sort of nasal cavities there.

You can look up and you see the eyes,

and then you can see this headband

of an exploding kind of mind, if you will.

Can you see it now?

So you wanna get up, and, uh, I would... I was...

Yeah, I wanna get a good shot.

Get in the tub and point outwards.

[Lee] Um...

I think it's exciting to be able to sort of, uh, rescue

for a start, to rescue a 114-year-old building.

And stop it being turned into condominiums

or a big mansion for a Broncos player.

[Lee] And to have be a place of, um...

you know, reflection, meditation, prayer,

and a good quiet space,

in which, you know, we were able to, um...

[clicks tongue] make rather beautiful.

And I think we put a world class,

beautiful piece of art to the city of Denver.

And they should be grateful for it.

I saw a skate boarding video made by Red Bull

of a skate park that'd been built inside an abandoned church

and was painted by a guy

who did this space, Okuda San Miguel.

So we kind of looked it in, and thought we should get

someone like that to paint our place.

We paid a six-foot model from Madrid,

with his two, um, assistants, Pablo and Marcos.

Um, and we paid for the paints,

we had to build full size scaffolds up inside here.

[lighter clicks]

I think the pope was ripped off when he paid Michelangelo,

to be honest with you.

'Cause it took him like 20 years or something. So...

[theme music]

[narrator] Today in Colorado,

what was once a cannabis revolution

is now simply business as usual.

I have the Cheeba Chew and we have Herbs and Straps.

And that's going to be sitting at 44.50 today.

[man 1]

[narrator] Anyone over the age of 21 can buy marijuana legally

-from a pot shop. -Poifect.

[narrator] They just need to bring an ID and cash.

And then do you want a receipt for this one, dear?

[man 2]

You know, that's... that's a good thing.

[both scoffs]

[man 2]

-Yeah, exactly! -[man 2 chuckling]

And your eyes are not bloodshed at all

when you come in and say that, for sure.

[man 2]

[man 2 chuckles]

[Justina] Awesome.

My name is Justina.

I'm a budtender at High Q in Silt, Colorado.

I am pretty new to the industry,

but hopefully can answer all the questions

that you're looking for.

Uh, we're pretty great here, um, at High Q

because we are strictly organic and pesticide-free,

um, so we really have quality, you know, bud,

and then all of our other products, you know,

are going to be married to that quality.

Um, also, we try to give people a lot of selection.

Um, so we have edibles, topicals, concentrates...

And then we sell our bud in many, uh, many forms.

Uh, I'm Carsey Hawkins,

and I have my own company, Carsey Hawkins Consulting.

And I teach cannabis compliance and education

mostly to dispensary budtenders.

I'm Campbell and I work at a dispensary...

as a cannabis advisor.

The one that everyone wants to hear about

is called responsible vendor training,

and it's the Marijuana Enforcement Division,

which is under the department of revenue.

Um, we'll certify this class,

and it's a four-hour retail course.

It's similar to, like, bartending,

like tips or food safe classes, but for cannabis.

And it focuses on, um, on compliance for budtenders.

They're selling safely and following all the laws.

That's a four-hour class with a test at the end.

Um, for your company to be certified in it,

every retail employee has to be certified in it.

[indistinct chatter]

[man 3]

Sometimes that works in an opposite way, though.

It really is, uh, trial and error.

There, so this one's going to be at 111.27.

[man 4]

You know, I think we could swing it.

[man 4]

Yeah, I wish we could do that here, um,

but we are still not legal in the eyes of federal law,

which means they don't let us bank.

There. It is, yeah, it's...

definitely feeling like a drug dealer sometimes.

[man 4]

Gonna get you some change back, 80.

[man 4]

You know, the only thing that refrigeration really does help

is keeps that consistency a little thinner.

Um, there's like some pulping stuff

'cause there is orange zest in it.

Um, so, that's why I like to keep it in the fridge,

but it's not completely necessary.

So here's 70, 20, 40, 60, 80, 85, 86, 87. All right.

Well, thank you, guys, for coming and seeing us.

Always appreciate it.

-There, and good luck. -[bell chimes]

[Carsey] That's what the badge looks like.

Um, the budtenders will have blue ones,

and it'll say "support" right here.

And then if you're at management level or above,

it will say, or, you know, or even sales floor lead,

anything that isn't... above a budtender

where you have access to keys or safes

and large quantities of cannabis,

it'll be a key badge, um, and it's the price difference.

And they run separate background checks

with the key one too also.

The prices have changed, this one, at the time,

I think it was 245 dollars, around there, in that range.

Uh, the support ones are 75 now, which is nice.

But she just had to upgrade her key, too.

[Carsey] I've never heard of a fake badge.

-Have you? -[Campbell] No, me either.

Yeah, I haven't heard of that.

[Campbell] 'Cause they're pretty easy to get.

As long as... They do a background check on you

and it's pretty thorough.

But as long as you, um,

disclosed any crimes that you've committed,

or anything like that, they'll give you one.

So, it's not difficult.

My name is Jesse, and I am a cannabis courier.

I am licensed by the state of Colorado,

uh, and essentially, I transport marijuana

and marijuana infused products all over the state.

[Jesse] I was a delivery driver for a dental laboratory...

before this.

One of our couriers actually had a run-in with a gunman

at dispensary right when they were closing.

And, uh, luckily, it all ended up working out.

The police have ended up catching, uh, the suspects

within, like, 20 minutes of robbing the place.

My... One of my employees was involved.

He actually scuffled with the guy a little bit,

and, uh, luckily, the guy didn't shoot.

He had an AR-15,

and he's in jail now so... [giggles]

So this is gonna be the purest way, um...

They pretty much take your plant and then they freeze it,

and it freezes off those natural terpenes,

it freezes off those trichomes. Um, and it's going to be...

And I have to smell it, every time I do.

Definitely with our staff or our calmer crew,

but in this industry, a lot of people, um...

you know, expect things and expect answers quite quickly.

So you're definitely gonna feel that pressure with the clients,

um, also, it's pretty cut throat with the prices,

uh, the quantity of the products that we sell...

It's... It is hard to kinda meet a customer,

and try to find exactly what they're looking for

and, you know, make them happy,

make them feel comfortable with us

and want to come back to us all the time,

to, you know, get best product, the best price, um...

But, also, we like to, you know, to treat everyone that comes in

just like, you know, as our friend.

So, we do want, you know, to kinda make the connection

with our clients and just...

kinda keep that positivity in the industry

'cause it's definitely hard.

Got my weed!

Well, I actually got my weed.

Coffee and donuts, THC, 100 milligrams.

It says the total THC is 109.35 milligrams.

I talked to the girl in there who sold it,

"So, listen, this is an out of towner,

it was not from here, so we start...

we start with, like, half, how do we know?"

And she said, "Yeah, pretty evenly distributed

through out here." [laughs]

Which we know, it's not.

[Ben] And I love, I love this part.

Um... "This product was produced without regulatory oversight

for health, safety or efficacy.

The intoxicating effects of this product

may be delayed by two or more hours.

There may be additional health risks associated."

So, you can expect this thing

that we've been talking about for years

without FDA involvement.

Nobody's making sure that some guy's toenails

aren't in here. Or... And then...

Each square has an equal amount of THC or other,

uh, if it's CBD, you know,

you don't know which square is gonna

-give you the best relief... -Yeah.

...for medicinal purposes.

Which square has all of it and...

-You don't know any of that. -Yeah.

But the implication is, with 100 milligrams,

there's ten per.

And I asked her about that, and she said,

"Yeah, you can use it. It's like a Hershey bar."

But we've had multiple test that have come back,

and examples, again and again, that says this is not the case.

"This product contains marijuana and its potency was tested

with an allowable plus or minus 15% variance."

"Don't drive a motor vehicle or operate heavy machinery

while using marijuana."

So, I also got some marijuana vaginal suppositories,

because why not?

All right. It is childproofed.

We gotta figure this thing out.

I'm gonna... [snickers]

I actually got these 'cause I knew

-we were gonna hang out. -[laughing]

I love you, man. [snickers]

You know, I am speechless, which doesn't happen a lot.

[both snicker]

Look, it's not just... It's not just for vaginas.

Oh, so it could fit nicely up your nose.

[chortles]

I'm making fun of this, but isn't this sort of absurd?

This is insane.

It's bad enough that have, you know,

the problems we have around.

Alcohol and tobacco in our culture,

and the way that it's commercialized

and marketed to our young people.

And we just keep adding and intoxicating stuff

to the list of the, you know,

things that are deemed culturally necessary

-in order to have a good time, -Right.

in order to be... you know,

and involved in advanced liberal society.

Not that it's a liberal or conservative issue,

it's just, you know,

um, who ends up hurting the most, unfortunately.

[narrator] To the 52% of Coloradans

who voted for amendment 64,

legalization promised different things.

The freedom to smoke a joint in peace,

better access to alternative medicine,

racial justice, and the end of the war on drugs.

And for others, it promised the gift of wealth.

[Adam] We have a wellness and meditation center

in a large industrial hemp grow.

We've about 16 acres registered and about 18 thousand plants.

[Julia] For us, if this is like a living entity

that can just give humanity so much benefit.

So we really treat it as something sacred.

And our crew really treats it as something sacred.

It's not just get as many...

-and passable, and... -Right.

You know, turn it into a commodity.

It's really sacred, these plants. So...

Yeah, we worry about every single one of them.

[both laugh]

So, this is my mom. Her name is Betty.

She's done really, really well. She's had a little help.

Um, she's beginning to go into flower.

Uh, we started with about 300 clones,

and we ended up with 18,000 plants.

And Sandy was in charge of the cloning operations

with her, um, her crew, her all female crew.

And it's just amazing that... It was just three months ago

that they were all tiny, little plants

in the greenhouses.

[Sandy] It's all called cannabis.

And they are bred for the...

This plant is bred for the CBD oil

and high terpene counts in the various.

We have five different strains in all of these fields.

And some are...

A little earlier than others and more productive than others.

And some are steadier, more dependable than others.

So they all have their good and bad qualities.

But these are...

When we clone, we're cloning from all females,

which have a genetic basis

of a certain amount of very, very low THC to non-existent THC

and the highest CBD possible.

And so the THC ones are completely different plant.

And they're actually mostly males.

And these are all females, they can't be any males at all,

uh, because this is the oil production.

And if we have males that release the pollen,

it would stop our oil production immediately in the whole field.

It's wonderful, 'cause that's what we really found at this,

this will really help people with cancer.

Um, and God gifted us with three times you know,

the cancer fighting properties, so it's pretty cool.

[pattering]

[narrator] CBD is the non-psychoactive part

of some cannabis plants.

It is widely believed to have medical benefits.

[Julia] I really love it. In all my days,

I never thought I'd be cooking cannabis products,

but here we go. [laughs]

And every day, I'm getting texts and messages from people

how these particular products are healing them. So...

So one of the coolest benefits that we've noticed

has been with our animals.

We had no idea that the CBD oil

would work so powerfully with our dog.

If you see these dogs,

you'd never know how old they were.

'cause they just run all over the place, so...

It's great for their anxiety, their moods, so...

[giggles]

[narrator] THC is the part of the cannabis plant

that gets you high.

[calm music]

And when people come into town, they're, they say,

"Oh, my god, are people just high everywhere?

Are they just hanging out and smoking all the time?

They think it's... They think it's like nirvana.

It is a little nirvana-ish.

But they also think it's a little hedonistic here,

where maybe because the thrill is gone,

and people are used to it that... Whatever.

Last night, it wasn't bad.

Usually, there's this huge cloud of smoke at the concert,

and it was pretty calm.

They were enjoying the fragrance.

I would say we are about two blocks away

from Good Chemistry, the dispensary,

from Range View high school.

[Thomas] They're everywhere. I mean, of course, there's...

Where there's a lot of minorities,

a lot of part of your established neighborhoods.

Of course, you know, there are still liquor stores,

and there's no dispensary not too far away.

Yeah, this is...

This is A town, Colorado,

and the melting pot.

[Thomas] I'm 41 years old, I'll be 42 next month.

Um, I have four years clean. I have five years off of paper.

I have seven years off of gangs.

And I walked in, and I'm like the Bam Bam Bigelow of recovery

with tattoos on my head and all that kind of stuff.

Walking through the door, they're like,

"You're Thomas Hernandez?" I go, "Yeah."

Hey, yo, young man, you left your wallet

[Thomas] You're gonna need that.

[chuckles]

[man chatters]

All right, brother. Have a good one, man.

[razor whirring]

Got a lot of those great land of opportunity,

there's a lot of opportunity out here.

You can't make it out here, you can't make it nowhere.

We're the lowest unemployment rate in the nation.

Got a strong... Got a strong economy.

Marijuana!

[Boogie] It got better with marijuana.

When marijuana was legalized, it definitely got better.

And then the cool thing is Denver being the center

of a lot of airlines.

People get... It's easy... You can take a one-trip ticket,

And be right here and get that experience.

I mean, increase...

I mean, since they legalize, the effect in me is

my property value went up, and my house...

um, my... our clientele has picked up,

a lot of people moving out here.

Uh, people moving out here to learn the industry.

So when they stay legalize, they can be automatic experience

and open up their own.

Yeah, you even got, uh, the tours.

Dispensary tours you can sign up for.

Spend the day doing your thing.

While visiting all these places on the bus.

Just for example, Wesley from Baltimore, Maryland.

Go Ravens.

And every time I fly home,

people always ask me free weed, and how's the weed

and legalized and always make it more than what it is.

And I tell them, "Man, you can go to the gas station,

get a box chicken, fill up your gas tank,

and get a sack of weed in one spot.

[both laughing]

But, yeah, people out here, man,

when come out here for the first time, they're really

blown away, all dispensaries on the corner

like 7/11s and...

And it was like, "Why have a weed person

when you can just go to the store and get it?"

-Yeah. -But well, you know...

Well, you know, when I was in the Reningham yesterday,

there was people that don't have IDs,

people that are afraid to go in those places.

And a lot of people don't want to be a part of the system.

'Cause once they get the ID, they track you,

they put you in a computer, you know what I mean?

A lot of people don't wanna be, you know,

tracked that they smoke marijuana or whatever.

Some people don't trust it yet.

Yeah, at the beginning,

there was seven to eight robberies a week,

it's like a little over once a day,

armed robberies of these places.

You know, so, now you've got ex-military, you know,

kinda like you hired militia watching your staff,

watching your money transport, all that kind of stuff.

You got all these banks from California coming in

showing them how and what to do with their money,

taxes going one way and then they don't the next.

You know, it's back to putting that money in a shoebox

type of situation.

You also...

It still got its over tones of a street hustle to it.

You know, it's not fully established,

but it's definitely here to stay.

[Dre] They feel like slapping the hell out of you.

Especially if I don't smoke,

[chortles] you know what I mean?

[Thomas] So, you're saying I drive you to smoke?

No. You encourage me.

[all laugh]

You're deadly aiding. You're furthering me.

Oh, my God!

No, but honestly, like, sometimes I can come in

and have a horrible attitude,

you know, it is a part of an addiction.

But after I smoke, I feel better,

and I can get along with Boogie and most of my clients.

You know, so I think it helps me.

I might, you know... The effects that it has on me,

not the same with everybody else, like...

We have this other guy here that when he smokes,

he's... he's done for the day.

Or the week.

[chuckles] Do you know what I mean?

So, it has different effects on everybody,

but it actually, I feel like it helps me.

All this talk, probably about to go to the car right now.

[laughing]

Marijuana doesn't make you a zombie, they say.

Doesn't make you, uh, not wanna live life.

It actually makes you more active,

makes you wanna go to buffets and try different foods.

-[laughing] -You know.

-It increases the food industry. -Yeah.

It helps food. It helps Doritos and Cheetos out.

You know, it helps those guys. Everybody, it's all helpful.

That it's like one big helpful cycle.

[narrator] Just 9% of adult pot users

are addicted according to federal data,

compare to the 15% of alcohol and cocaine users.

That seems reassuring until you realize

the marijuana statistics are two decades out of date.

Today, pot is five times stronger than it was

when Colorado first legalized.

That's a significant increase in potency.

[laughs] [Ben] I'll tell you what,

that applies to cigarettes.

Nobody smokes cigarettes, man.

But you tell somebody that you wish

they weren't smoking weed around you,

you get the Colorado constitution

thrown in your face.

It's kinda wild, you know? It's so accepted

that we shouldn't be smoking cigarettes

around each other and around kids, and...

It's just a given.

But, yeah, really, I mean, if we see somebody,

I'll say something like I always do.

Like, "Hey, you know, you can't smoke out there."

And the answers always the same.

Like, "Typically, the amount of profanity varies

from lots to none.

But it's my constitutional right, man."

All right.

You know, we went from 0 to 100 miles an hour overnight.

So we went from being illegal...

at the state level and at the federal level

one night to waking up,

and now it's a constitutional right.

And I was always amazed of how quickly

it got to you're taking away my rights

rather than even you're breaking the law

or I'm in compliance with the law,

It... For us, it's a constitutional amendment.

And very quickly was right in there

with you can't take away my rights.

So amendment 64 changed our constitution,

our state government foundational document.

That is extremely difficult to undo

and it's given much greater emphasis

and weight by any appellate court,

including the Colorado Supreme Court.

So, recreational marijuana will be here

whether legislature likes it or not,

whether the people of the state of Colorado like it or not,

until we re-amend the constitution.

I think it's very unlikely we'll do that in the near term.

You know, when I get asked about what's the problem

with somebody going home after a hard day's working

and smoking a joint?

Just to relax?

Um, my answer is...

I don't really have a problem with that

as long as they're 21 years old, they're doing it on their own,

um, willpower and desire.

But, again, that's... What was the hope

and how it was voted? Because people said,

"Maybe you have deal with it if I don't want to."

Uh, that's not what we're seeing roll out.

It's one of the biggest issues I'm seeing today

with the overt commercialization

of Marijuana and THC.

Overseeing really has nothing to do with marijuana anymore.

It is literally the overt commercialization

and sale of THC.

And there's where people are now saying,

"I voted for it, but I didn't vote for that."

[Jackson] And they're talking about an internet ad,

a newspaper advertisement, a billboard.

Something that's in your face, or maybe the third store

within a close proximity to your home.

And now they're beginning to say,

"I voted for it, but I didn't vote for that."

I didn't know what that meant at the time.

We didn't know anything about butane hash oil explosions.

We didn't know anything about,

that we would be doing social clubs

and mobile delivery, the equivalent of Uber

to your home, I mean.

So all these things are materializing

and we've become kind of the genesis point

where we're incubating ideas out between a couple of states,

but now more is just coming,

and it doesn't ever seem to be enough.

It just keeps going.

Every sash, and there's 40 plus bills in the legislator...

of how to do more marijuana or change something.

And it is impossible for your law enforcement to keep up

and maintain anything with regard to public safety.

[upbeat music playing]

You know, my nickname as a kid was Mara-juana.

Kinda proud of it now. I wasn't so...

Well, yeah, I guess when I was younger, I was.

It's funny.

I've been smoking pots since I was 14.

And then, when it became legal,

it's like... [grunts]

It kinda took the fun out of it a little bit

instead of, you know, excitement of getting your pot,

working with your dealer, and not getting caught.

Now you can just walk in anywhere and get it,

and so can anybody else.

What's so special about that?

Let's go smoke some weed.

[clicks tongue, snarls]

Is Jane gonna smoke? Is somebody gonna smoke with me?

I can't smoke alone!

[birds chirp]

[clanks]

I've had this forever,

but I wanna show you something that's so great.

[clinking]

[Mara] Okay, so there's that part of the grinder,

which I can just...

close up.

But, it's the big bang

with the little bang inside. [laughs]

Right?

[rustling]

[crackling]

[lively music]

You can tell the terpenes on here, they're, uh...

And you can see everyone of these are full of bud,

[Michael] And, uh, where all those cannabidiols

will be extracted from.

But you can see here they're some beautiful plants.

And there's lots of resin on them now.

When I do that now, that's a good sign.

There's a very sticky resin.

A lot of the properties are held.

If you're industrial hemp, you're below 0.3% THC.

And the antidote we use as if...

you couldn't, you'd have to smoke a joint

the size of one of these telephones,

like one of those REA poles.

And you'd have to smoke it at a day's time,

and probably still just get a headache.

I mean, you're just literally not gonna get

a psychoactive high out of this.

This is literally a virgin prairie plot.

This prairie is the same as it would've been

when the native Americans and the buffalo rammed here

hundreds of years ago.

This has never been farmed. It's never been tilled.

It's never fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides on it.

Nor is it now.

I do believe this is the purest hemp plant and hemp plot

in the United States.

This plant was planted on August 2nd,

to commemorate the 80th anniversary of FTR

signed in the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

We've endured 80 years of prohibition,

you know, to our peril.

It's been a disaster.

And so, you know, this is a bit of new beginning for all of us.

You know, you've got to be internal optimist

to be a Chicago Cubs fan.

And it was green and it was C for cannabis.

I thought this was the perfect hat. So...

[woman laughing]

[Michael] Well, if you go back to 1937 at that time,

Henry Ford had already built his iron mountain bio-refinery.

He was using the oil from the male seed,

uh, seeds are from the male plant.

To create industrial oil.

Sherwin-Williams, at that time,

all of the paint was hemp oil based.

And they saw a lot of opportunity

for the advance plastics, it could come from the stalk.

And so they were really on the CASP,

uh, and in popular mechanics said in 1938.

Industrial hemp was gonna be the next billion-dollar crop

in the United States.

They were just on the leading edge of mechanization.

And so it was almost about ready to happen when prohibition hit.

And so we went down.

I would say that the fork in the road was...

where we're gonna create a bio economy

where we're gonna rely on the carbohydrates

or we're gonna go down a hydrocarbon economy

where we're gonna extract from the past.

And at that point,

we chose a hydrocarbon economy, which brought us today.

Can you imagine what this world might look like today

if we'd gone down the bio economy route,

who would've fought wars

over the last seven, eight decades over oil?

And that things that we,

you know, the thing we care about.

What happens in our fuhrer.

What happens in Iraq or Afghanistan that...

It's all tied... It's all rooted in oil.

[narrator] Hemp has been a valuable agricultural crop

for thousands of years.

-Smells like tar. -[chuckles]

Tar that smells really good. [laughs]

[narrator] It's been farmed for food, fuel, and fiber.

And has almost no psychoactive properties.

[Jeffrey] I'm Jeffrey Friedland, and I live in Colorado.

I grew up in Colorado.

Uh, my background was corporate finance and investment banking.

Um, I've spent a lot of time in New York

over the past decades.

Ended up as part of that doing investment banking

in emerging markets like China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil.

Um, that ended with a stock market crash

of, uh, 2000, 2008.

It wasn't any interest in emerging markets.

Um, leaving Colorado, I was talking to a friend.

Um, and this was back in the summer of 2013.

And I wasn't doing much.

And he said, "You know, we're gonna have

a new industry in Colorado,

recreational marijuana."

So we started doing Starbucks meetings.

And we would meet with people who were...

had a medical license in Colorado,

'cause Colorado, at that time, had a medical marijuana regime.

We also met with a lot of what I call druggies

or semi-functional human beings

who just wanted to be in the marijuana business,

and we met with some other people

that were serious business people.

So that's how, in the fall of 2013,

I got into this industry.

[men laughing]

-[Kingdom] Last call? -[Boogie] Last call.

[laughing]

But there's like.. there's some positives,

there's some... and there's some negatives, and that's...

So our children has access to this...

And this is just way out.

What my concern is right there, 'cause I got three babies,

and I'll be damned, you know what I'm saying?

-[Kingdom] It's too accessible. -[Boogie] Once...

Once these kids get on that weed,

man, everything... their progress drops.

-And all these-- -Now, go to school no more,

their grades go down.

-All these candies. -That's what I'm saying,

who gets successful off of that?

All these candies are coming out.

With kids, you know,

they're just giving kids candies at school.

Right. You got a Snickers bar.

Everybody thinks it's a regular snickers bar,

but it's a weed bar.

But they make it look so palatable

to where the kids be like, "Oh, shit, new candy."

[Boogie] And what if the kids are playing a prank.

Exactly.

A little child could die from this.

[Kingdom] That's what I tell my daughter.

"Don't take no candy from nobody at school."

Because these weed companies are making these edibles

in boxes where it looks like it's geared towards kids.

You go at 7/11, you can put weed candy in these boxes

and stuff like that, that they have,

and you can't tell the difference.

-It's colorful. It's appealing. -It's colorful, it's bright.

[Thomas] You know what's funny about it?

Everybody thinks they're selling some kinda,

they got something like a Keebler bakery

or something like that.

You know all it is? It's just condensed in a spray.

Like the gummy bears?

They just buy gummy bears wholesale,

put them on the table and spray them.

[Kingdom] That shit still has an effect.

And you have no idea what the contents on that.

But it's up to us to educate them.

And with cigars and weed, right.

But it's up to us to educate them, though.

Because America's not gonna educate them. America's...

Now, there's a difference when you don't wanna get high,

but you want to use "if" for the medical,

and things like that.

[blows raspberry]

We started giving my daughter, Marley, cannabis

in June of 2015.

[Dena] And that's when things really started to pick up.

The Charlotte's Web was starting to give seizure control,

which we didn't have before.

So taking away those pharmaceuticals really

was, um, a big eye opener, a big mind opener for her.

So that she could start feeling and moving

and tasting and smelling and...

You know, she pretty much had a lot of,

as far as I could tell,

just deadened emotions and senses and all of that,

because of the pharmaceuticals.

And now, she's, you know, she makes eye contact,

and she runs now.

Before, she basically just dragged her body

with her elbows.

So to see her just running around and smiling now

is a huge, huge difference.

[Kingdom] You should have kept it at the medical.

If you have all that stuff,

then you're supposed to go see a doctor about it.

And then, you're supposed to go ahead

and get those prescriptions.

But the thing is, when you make it the way you're going in there

just like you're going to a 7/11 to get a candy bar,

-it changes the game. -[Boogie] Mm-hm.

PTSD, all that stuff is out the window.

Medical marijuana is losing now.

You get... You're supposed to get better marijuana,

but who gives a shit if you're smoking?

You know, but I'ma go get my medical card,

because they got better marijuana.

Shit. They got just some of the high class,

good shit on every corner.

In Colorado, there is a damn dispensary

-almost on every corner. -Ah, beating out liquor stores.

They're beating out liquor stores now.

So, you know, we can say all the diseases it helps,

but they should've kept it medical

to where you have your medical card

-and that you have a reason. -[Thomas] Like they had before?

Yes, like they had it before. But they saw the money...

[Kevin] THC and CBD,

those are the primary cannabinoids

that people are concerned with and so they often talk about it

adjusting the ratios of THC and CBD.

I should point out that most of the cannabis

that are sold in dispensaries has very high THC content.

So I think there's a disproportionate amount

of talk about high CBD cannabis, because I think, in many ways,

people feel like it's more legitimate, medically,

to talk about cannabis that is less likely to make you high.

But of people aren't interested in that cannabis.

People who go to dispensaries or stores want the strong stuff.

I think that the idea... Something better and stronger.

Something that a customer or a patient

are probably going to see as having value.

And so I think as technology improves,

the ability to grow cannabis for the layperson improves.

People are gonna be interested in growing stronger cannabis.

Well, the license hopefully,

if it ever, if they ever took away,

uh, legalization as far as just retail,

and it was down to the license again,

I would have it already.

[Mara] Uh, I had a medical situation

that's why I got it in the first place.

Although that isn't why I started smoking it.

I smoked it before.

Um, and it gives you a break on the price.

You have access to stronger things

that you don't when you don't have a license.

That's the difference.

The recreational market has completely hijacked

the medical market.

And they use it when they want to,

when it's convenient, to further their own market

in the recreational realm to make money.

And the doctors doing it, it's all about the money.

You pay for a recommendation, it's not a prescription.

You pay for a recommendation.

Okay? And you pay more

for an extended plant count recommendation.

Really?

The doctor I go to... [chuckles]

I think that's her biggest business,

is just writing scripts for pot.

It's a hundred bucks a pop.

She comes in to town, she goes to grand junction.

She's also, um, I think in Glenwood.

And sees people here and there and everywhere.

And just sets up her appointments just for that.

There's a lot of doctors.

It's kinda like when Botox came into play.

Gynecologists started doing Botox.

That kind of thing.

Now everybody wants a license to do this,

because it's easy money.

[radio chatter]

[Kayvan] In Denver, uh, last year, we were lambasted

as an industry by city council

uh, for being too concentrated in communities of color,

in poor neighborhoods. It wasn't our fault.

When we came into this industry years and years ago,

the city deemed us

only available to go into those locations.

They zoned us into those locations.

They were the undesirables.

They were the warehouse districts.

They were the place where property values were low.

Upper and middle class neighborhoods, uh,

are not gonna allow dispensaries to be in their neighborhoods.

The want their neighborhoods to be clean cut.

They don't want that type of traffic...

in their neighborhoods,

because they, uh, assume it's gonna bring

uh, negative atmosphere into their community.

You know, they don't want people coming in and out.

They're driving in and out their community

uh, purchasing marijuana.

Um, and they... and they use their voice

to vote on what types of businesses

they want in their communities,

uh, you know.

And people of color tend to not show up

and vote or voice saying,

"Yes, we do once in our neighborhood, no we don t."

Usually, when it shows up, it's too late.

It's there. The business is there.

You know, neighborhoods got cleared out. Like, with my--

Justification was on the rise when marijuana was legalized.

That rhyme, that felt like Muhammad Ali and shit.

[laughing]

But, uh, it did. Justification was on the raise.

Justification, the east side, Park Hill.

They went bought all of those brick homes.

No time through all the years of growing up

as an adolescent,

I never seen a white folk just jogging with their dog.

-Like the city park! -Not in the east side.

Or the city park. None of that.

-City Park was all black. -Late at night.

I rolled through the day and they just, just getting it.

But it was like now, you got bistros,

and you got vegan restaurants, and things like that

that are opening up.

And it's like, I was down in Park Hill,

and, you now, my father gets his hair cut down there

at a black... at an African American barber.

And then you turn around and across the street is a cafe.

And I'm like, "What the shit?"

And you got white people there drinking coffee,

eating coffee cakes and shit.

'Cause it got weed in 'em.

-No. But you never... -[laughing]

You never seen that shit. You know what I mean?

I was like, "Wow, times are changing."

-Yeah, lot of folks... -Times are changing, man.

And they sent... They sent a lot of us...

They sent a lot of African Americans to Aurora.

Now, my question is, anybody who's in jail

for weed charge, did they let them out

when they legalize it?

No, because it was illegal at the time that it happened.

But I do feel... I do feel that a lot of those charges

-should not either be dropped, -No...

but they should be lessened because of the fact.

-Absolutely. -You know what I'm saying?

-Come on, it's weed, man. -Yeah.

I agree, but it doesn't have to say thing

that they did for cocaine and crack.

It's cocaine and crack!

-Regardless. -Cocaine and crack

-destroyed families! -When they...

Regardless, but when they reduced--

You know how many VCRs I had when I was selling crack?

[laughing]

But when they reduced the charges...

When they reduced the charges for selling crack

versus cocaine,

that was retroactively.

Everybody begged. They should do the same thing.

I agree, they should do the same thing for marijuana.

[narrator] So far, there have been no reduction

in prison sentences for marijuana convictions,

nor has there been any move towards reparations.

If you're black in Denver, you're still 2.6 times

more likely to get arrested or cited

for cannabis related offenses.

At some parts of the country,

it's as high as eight to ten times.

If you're a person of color, um, more likely,

uh, to have police involvement in your cannabis use.

So, you know, this was something

that we looked at here in Colorado

and said 11,000 people every year in the State

are going to jail for simple cannabis possession

and creating barriers to getting housing,

to getting a job, to getting custody of the children,

to obtaining financial aid.

[Dwayne] For public housing, you have to qualify.

Which means, you can't have a felony on your record.

And it's based on your income.

If residents violate the lease, they can be put out.

So if they smoke marijuana on a property,

even if they have a medical red card

or not, or recreationally,

they can be violated for smoking on the property,

because it's a federally funded property.

Even though it's a state law that legalizes marijuana.

Residents don't seem to understand that.

And, uh, those are great areas

that we have to kinda clarify for them,

so they don't end up back on the street again.

'Cause housing is so important.

It's one of the main things to help them

become self-sufficient it stabilize their housing.

Once you violate that, you're unable to get housing

in the state of Colorado ever, ever again.

[dog whining]

Is the house that cannabis built?

[woman laughs]

[woman 1] No, no, cannabis did not buy this house.

Cannabis does pay the bills. Yeah, that's right.

[Carsey] This is ridiculous. A glass blower made it.

It has so much detail in it, it's unreal.

But you would fill this with water,

and it works as a bong and rig at the same time.

So, you have a mouth piece here,

and that's a nail too for dabbing.

So you could throw, you know, your concentration here.

Have that heated.

[burbles]

Hit it like that.

But it also has a ball piece.

So if you actually have someone with another set of hands,

you can dab while smoking flower at the same time.

So it's pretty ridiculous.

Um, I actually bought it off, uh, customer,

at the store I used to work in.

He blew it himself.

I'm not sure what he's sifting through in here

but I think he's just, uh, had some stuff that cross spread

and has seeds in it now.

[Jackson] Home-growns present a very unique

public safety, public health problem.

People come to Colorado, they get a driver's license,

they go to a doctor, rent a home,

knock the walls out,

clear growing operation hiding in plain sight

right in the middle of a neighborhood,

put them in a lighting system and irrigation system.

And if four of them do that, you know, they can grow hundreds

of marijuana plants legally right in your neighborhood.

The order control, the mould,

the public safety issues with the electric,

the power, they started out very rudimentary

with power cords everywhere,

hoses everywhere.

Now, what we see

is very sophisticated growing operations.

Uh, the pesticides that are involved in this,

trying to force a better hybrid plant,

where what we find now is

pesticides will make things grow faster,

maybe sometimes better.

But they're not for human consumption by smoking.

Shouldn't you know that before you use that?

It was almost half of marijuana in Colorado was found,

to test positive for pretty dangerous pesticides.

'Cause people are getting greedy.

They wanna... Make us grow as much weed as they can.

Get it out as fast as they can.

And they don't care about to the person that consumes it.

So I think greed is definitely...

kinda messing things up a little bit.

Your law enforcement, your fire departments

are going into these homes,

and having to deal with

emergencies unknowing.

A good example is butane hash oil explosion.

The extraction of THC from the plant.

Nobody knew of that process when they voted on it.

Now, all of a sudden, we're stripping off

the high-grade THC concentrates

into things to boil often the butane,

and the butane then falls to the floor,

and then spark.

All of a sudden, your hotel room explodes.

Your home explodes.

Your trailer explodes.

We dealt with it through legislation,

but those are the things that are public safety driven,

that are home grow driven,

that we have struggled with since the start.

You know prior to a bill that just got passed

in this last session,

you could have an unlimited number of plants

in a home to be grown for marijuana.

You can get a prescription for 99 plants,

but if you are a caregiver, you could end up growing

your buddy Timmy's plants,

and your buddy Scotty's plants,

and pretty soon neighbors in a nice middle

or upper middle class neighborhood

are calling the police saying, "Hey,

inside my neighbor's house,

it looks like Jurassic Park in there.

Can you please go shut these guys down?

Law enforcement show up,

person that's inside the house would show them a prescription,

and the caregiver information,

and the police would go away, empty-handed,

with no ability to regulate that or limit it.

We've since changed the law that said you can have

no more than 12 plants in a residence.

That kind of legislation was needed up front.

We didn't have it.

Any state that's considering doing this,

ought to put that limit in there right now.

Whether it's twelve, eight, ten, or whatever.

I mean, a plant treated properly probably puts off of what,

about a pound of usable marijuana every month?

Um, that's a lot.

Maybe it's every year.

Either way 12 plants, 12 pounds of marijuana.

You can't... I mean, how much glaucoma

can that cure, right?

[chuckles]

Here we are. And we are going up there, third year.

And we're gonna be hanging out--

Oh, there's the puppy!

Oh, look, they're already hanging them up.

Then in about a week,

they'll be dry, and then we'll go in.

And then take the off.

And then... And then basically separate the buds

from the stem.

This again is we're experimenting with what works,

and the water costs are gonna be minimal, there...

Because we use drip line, we're very efficient.

The plants themselves are gonna cost

depending on what variety you have,

uh, would normally cost

somewhere between three and five dollars a piece.

We... Uh, just a little under 4,000 plants.

And the you have just your labor into,

you know, what's this planet.

So, our cost, you know, in this little pot,

we're going to have less than 10,000 dollars.

We're gonna have a substantial return

on those dollars.

[tranquil music]

[Ben] Cannabis was a plant, and it was natural.

And 40 years ago, um, was a very benign plant.

Cannabis today is a genetically modified organism

built to have as much of the intoxicating ingredient

as it possibly can.

A far, far cry

from what the natural plant was.

The thing we love to talk about that God gave us,

that George Washington grew, that Thomas Jefferson grew,

would naturally occurs somewhere between a .2 and .5% THC.

THC is the part of the plant that gets you high.

The rest of it is some interesting stuff.

THC gets you high.

So what God made is between .2 and .5%.

National average when Colorado voted was 12%.

So that was 50 years of seed exchanges,

of good gardening, better soil.

Um, in Colorado now,

our flower regularly tests mid-30s, lower 40%,

and our concentrates are as high as 98% THC.

That's a matter of five years.

It's... There's really not even a word to describe

that kind of growth except for...

um... [laughs]

...wonderful chemistry.

It's really an example of chemistry

taking the place of, kind of old school gardening technique.

The anti... anti-cannabis groups in Colorado,

I think it was last year, the year before,

tried to put a cap on the percentage levels

of THC in our products.

And people were really scared that it was gonna pass.

And we put up a really big fight about it.

Um, they wanted to cap everything at 16% THC.

I understand the logic there,

but that would eliminate all of our concentrate companies.

And concentrate smoking is very different

than from flower smoking.

Um, it would limit your flower even.

I mean, you'd have to grow certain strains

that couldn't possibly go over that.

'Cause, I mean, can you imagine having a whole crop

that you wanted at 16 does it at 17%.

You have to destroy the entire crop then.

If something's not in compliant, we can't just repackage it.

Or... It has to be put in to waste.

It's completely destroyed.

So, when something goes wrong,

I mean, companies lose a lot of money.

If test results are off, companies lose a lot of money.

Capping our industry like that at 16%

would've shut half of us down.

[Kevin] Tolerance refers to the fact

that if you're using a substance over time,

you're gonna need more and more drug

to get the same effect,

and I think cannabis really illustrates this nicely,

particularly when potency has increased over time.

So as people are more likely to encounter the cannabis plant

that may have 20% THC or 30% THC,

or the transition to concentrates

that may have 80 or 90% THC,

people are gonna build up tolerance.

So they're gonna be hunting for cannabis preparations

that are stronger than they were before.

They're always upping the ante.

And when people use stronger and stronger cannabis,

they're more likely to have the bad things occur,

the adverse effects.

So people might be more likely to become psychotic,

they might be more likely to have cyclic vomiting occur.

So as we've seen concentrates increase,

we've also seen, uh,

the bad problems increase as well.

About 9% of adults who Cannabis will develop

a cannabis use disorder or a Cannabis addiction.

The percentages for young people are higher.

So about one and six or 16%

will develop a cannabis use disorder.

But it's important to point out, most people who use cannabis

don't develop addiction problems.

There's no need for them to see people like me.

So in that way, it's very similar to alcohol.

Most people who use alcohol don't develop an addiction.

But the major difference between the two,

in my view, is that as a society,

everyone knows that alcohol is bad for you,

and we haven't reached that point with cannabis.

Show me somebody who didn't have nothing

but smoke weed every day and ended up a millionaire.

Snoop Dog.

[laughing]

-Go straight with that. -Snoop Dog...

I mean, you got... you got...

You came in to that because of rap.

They talk about it,

they're over tones of it not being addictive.

Everything's got... I mean, the disease of addiction

is the disease of obsession.

It has nothing to do with the bag or the bottle.

-It's the decision... -It has... If you have become

obsessive and compulsive over a certain situation.

I can become obsessive and compulsive.

[Thomas] I'm in recovery.

You see the news that they're doing right now with marijuana?

They do an actual...

They're asking people to come, smoke weed,

so they can test their levels,

and they're trying to come up with a way.

So they have a way...

So they can charge people with DUIs.

-Mm-hm. -Being high.

Because if you're high on weed, and they pull you over,

they can't tell by your blood.

They got nothing to test you.

You know, with drinking and driving,

you can blow the thing.

Then they got you, you're over .08.

Well, you know, the rules are gonna get stricter.

My biggest problem with driving if I'm high

is that I drive slow.

That's my problem.

And when I get high, I focus more,

or I think I'm focusing more, and then I get into it.

I get into the art of driving.

I get in to the thrill of driving the car and,

you know, uh, so I pay a little bit more attention than,

than... I think when I'm not, sometimes.

But I drive slow.

But you know what I mean.

Like, when you're... Stick shift versus manual...

versus automatic, kind of thing.

You know, you just get in to the curves of the road

and, uh, the beauty around you,

and everything else a little bit more.

Everything's heightened.

[light clicks]

We have no way to across the state

gather information on real, true impairment in driving.

[Jackson] It might be that weeks later,

you're having marijuana in your system,

but you're not impaired anymore.

That is the diabolical difference

of trying to compare alcohol to marijuana,

and it's the resistance we've felt.

We're trying to find things that we can use.

Everything ultima is gonna boil down to your sobriety test,

your driving case,

what you see and are able to testify in court.

Um, how we transfer that to levels of impairment

is still almost negligible or very subjective.

[ominous music]

[George] Since we've legalized marijuana,

since the passage of amendment 64,

we have had in jurisdiction 11 first degree murder cases

related to the transaction of marijuana.

And that number is 11 spread out over those years.

It may not seem like a big number,

but what we have in quantified,

that is I think predictable, what is predictable about it

is that doesn't include second degree murder,

it doesn't include attempted first

or second degree murder,

it doesn't include felony assaults,

burglaries, trespasses.

It doesn't include a whole host of more commonly

occurring felonies that would be associated with this.

So, has violent crime increased related to the transaction

of marijuana since its legalization?

Yes, it has.

[George] We had one of those cases here in this jurisdiction.

We had a guy named Kevin Lyons

who brutally murdered a doctor who is running to the aid

of Kevin Lyons' wife who he tried to murder.

And part of his defense was the claim that he had

extremely high levels of THC in his system.

And that, in conjunction with some other things,

it played havoc on his faculties.

It is kind of ridiculous, um, and...

I mean, cannabis doesn't make you violent.

Uh, edibles, arguably. I mean, they are psychoactive.

[Carsey] I mean, people do call it...

It's not... Edibles are not the same type of high.

The THC is processing your liver instead of your lungs,

which makes it a totally different type,

which is why it feels different.

Um, and that can be, kind of, more of a "trip."

And I've heard to describe that way more recently

is that they're treating more like...

Edibles are treating it more like psychedelics.

Um, but I still don't...

I don't think it would cause you to commit murder.

And that was one of those cases

where the industry actually all kind of came together.

Even competing companies came together

to pay legal fees and to say,

"This is ridiculous, and we can't set this precedent.

We can't let this company gets sued

because this person killed his wife."

[chuckles]

That case was a potential death penalty case

that ended up in part because of that defense

and some other things that we discovered,

had chosen, instead to, um,

offer him the opportunity to plead guilty

and go to prison for the rest of his life

without the possibility of parole.

And he accepted that proposition.

We've even had grandparents in this jurisdiction

who had edibles to their minor grandkids

thinking what was legal, how bad can it be.

Those kids ended up having to be rushed to the hospital

because of the consequences,

the high potency in those edibles.

I really believe that it is my job

and every other elected officials job

to enforce the spirit of that law,

of that constitutional amendment,

while at the same time, trying to figure out

how to protect our communities and our children.

And that's not gonna be easy.

I mean, we have never been in an environment

where marijuana this potent has been this readily available

to so many.

And so, there is no model to look back at.

[light music]

One of my favorite topics of cannabis

that people don't talk about much

is probably sex and cannabis.

Um... [tongue clicks]

First, I mean, there's... there's a bunch of products now

for sex and cannabis, which is fantastic.

Uh, but...

Most people I hear talk about sex and weed get excited

about just getting stoned and having sex.

Uh, it does enhance feeling. It calms you down.

[Carsey] Um, there's a pretty awesome product,

it's a little more nerve-racking to discuss I guess.

Uh, it's called Foria Explore.

It's an anal suppository,

and it wildly enhances sensation.

And now I'm debating how much I should say on camera,

because it's pretty great. [laughs]

Um, I've already embarrassed my mother anyway.

[radio chatter]

[female voice] Turn left on East 15th avenue.

Then turn right to merge onto I-25 south.

♪ Now I'm getting older ♪

[male voice] This is Colorado public radio.

[reporter 1]Now that marijuana is legal here,

we've all done a few things to know.

[Jackson] My opinion with regard to gangs and cartels

is there are still good examples of each of those

being involved in our drug trade,

with regard to marijuana and other drugs.

And so this hasn't eliminated gangs and cartels

from doing drug work here in Colorado.

I can argue that we have just allowed them

to do it here in central of,

you know, United States of America,

and it goes out from here.

So, we do know and have made several arrests

and indictment here recently

with those indicators, both gang and cartel related

who are involved.

Um, to say that this rid of that is again, ludicrous.

Because it's all about money. And people will do

what they need to do to further their process,

they're initiatives, and what they're wanting to do,

but they need money and funding.

I mean, what does that tell me?

That tells me that the sates around us need to legalize.

That doesn't have anything to do

with how Colorado is or is not regulating this.

The demand exits outside of Colorado

because it's still an illegal drug.

[narrator]The hopes and dreams of Colorado's pot pioneers

are being systemically eroded by big business.

I am a bit of a felon as we stand here.

And Gina is perfectly legal.

[Michael] Nebraska is one of the two states last year

uh, that worked with GW pharma

to reschedule CBD as a schedule four drug.

Uh, and so the production of CBD in Nebraska

was just recently determined to be an illegal activity

by their state attorney general.

And all CBD that was in the state

being sold in grocery stores and such

was removed from the shelves.

[Kayvan] That has always been the fear, that there are...

there's larger money forces and political forces,

uh, that are waiting for their opportunity

in the cannabis industry.

GW pharmaceutical does have a current stake in is

and they are trying to modify a policy across the country.

To secure and protect markets for themselves.

You know, they're going into Nebraska, where I'm from,

and try to pass legislation

that says, "We can be the only producer of something."

That is wrong on every level.

I don't care if they're talking about cannabis

or the internet or electricity.

Uh, monopolies and oligopolies are an issue in the industry.

If you look at the first trials underway here

in the United States by UK-based GW pharmaceuticals,

I think one of the reasons they went after children

with a form of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome,

is politically, an easier sell

to say to people who are trying to help children

rather than trying to get some kid high on a street corner.

[Alan] One of my goals is to really educate

on the political side and the banking

and the regulatory side that,

"Hey, let's... let's try to bank this.

And if you want to take baby steps,

and if you want to bank the industrial hemp side,

and the we can cross over to the medical marijuana,

then we can cross over the recreational.

That all... Not sure how long that all takes,

but I think it's important that the banking system

gets behind it.

So banks are problem. Cash is a problem.

Um, you know, the states hate cash.

The IRS hates cash.

You can't audit something if it's a cash business so easily.

But it requires federal change to provide,

um, access of marijuana industry to the banking system.

I said, under Obama, about a year ago,

I said, you know, all it takes is an executive order

that is one sentence

to allow, uh, banks to bank marijuana businesses.

[narrator] Legal cannabis is a multi-billion-dollar

cash industry that cannot and will not regulate itself.

And those billions have to get laundered

into the system somehow.

[interviewer] So what's happened to the weed man?

[soft chuckle] He's still around.

And it's amazing because when you see him,

everybody and anybody knows him.

There's no discrimination.

It can be the 80-year-old guy.

It can be the 20-year-old person.

He's the guy I'm telling that everybody likes

to get their weed from.

And his name is...

[laughs] No.

The laws are a lot more difficult

for African Americans to get into the field,

um, because of the red tape.

You know, the qualifying to, you know, the background checks.

So if you're going in to this field,

and you have some type of, if you have drug history,

then you turn your life around,

and you try to take advantage of the boom in the business.

So, you know, it's a selection process.

And like I said, over 60% of dispensaries

are in low-income neighborhoods,

and they are all ran by Caucasian people.

Let's stop thinking that you can generate

seven billion dollars like that in a year

without capitalizing on somebody.

And remember that the "somebodys"

that we usually capitalize on inside of this country

when it comes to vice substances are minorities.

[Jackson] This weed thing is a sneeze.

In the cold, there's generations of poverty

that exist inside this country

in low income, minority neighborhoods.

At the governor's amendment 64 implementation task force,

we didn't even talk about homelessness.

So really, what we would call it

is kind of an unintended consequence

that has just manifested itself out throughout community.

You know, the mayor of Denver calls a lot of what we deal with

"urban travelers."

And he, too, has said that he knows,

and I don't wanna speak for him,

but he knows that marijuana has part of this.

Um, it... it just... it's nonsensical to say

that by legalizing this,

it doesn't cause any of the problems.

And I just think that the people who want to look at it that way

have made up their minds.

And it's really important.

I don't consider myself a prohibitionist

as most term me.

What I do consider myself is a realist.

I deal with the day-to-day factual situational stuff

that comes my way.

[Ben] Yes, I have smoked a lot of weed.

I've been sober for a couple years,

but it was a daily part of my life

for a number of years.

And I first started on, I loved it.

I still probably could love it somehow. Mm!

[squawking]

[Ben] So I found this about a year ago when I...

I actually pulled up here.

This is my favorite fishing spot with my kids.

It's the kids' only fishing location.

Fifteen and under.

And last year, at end of the winter,

we pulled in,

and as soon as I opened up the car door, I smelled it.

[sniffs] And during the winter,

across the street... [snickers]

...they had opened up this dispensary

and grow operation.

So you can't have weed shops in Longmont,

uh, which is the city that we are in right now.

And so I called when this thing opened up,

and started pitching a fit, 'cause my kids, here.

And they said, "No, it's not in Longmont."

And I ended up running down

with a bunch of people in Boulder County.

And the yellow line in the middle of that road

separates unincorporated Boulder County

from the city of Longmont.

So unincorporated Boulder County was like,

"Park's not in our jurisdiction."

Longmont was like, "The weed shop's not in our jurisdiction."

So the setbacks, nobody's caring about,

because you can't have a pot shop

across the street from a playground.

[Thomas] That's a busy ass shop, huh?

[Ben] Everybody here is sick as hell.

[all laugh]

Oh, shit! That's a party of sick people.

It's the season.

Damn, it's busier than a-- Look at this, man.

Printing money. They're printing money.

I don't understand what is happening here.

What are we doing?

Am I supposed to talk to you? Or just talk, just chat?

[Lee] We don't want to be some sort of parody of a church.

You know, we're on a kind of a slow growth trajectory.

I think we're just gonna keep doing our thing and...

I think we'll be a...

a positive impact on the neighborhood.

You know, in terms of building the community here,

in terms of people getting out and helping,

in terms of bringing tourism to the community,

um, the local businesses, you know, prosper from that.

So I think we're very positive.

Yeah.

California is probably our best hope.

The California authority,

the largest agriculture export in the entire state,

it's sixth largest economy in the world.

Um, we're gonna see some pretty dramatic shifts

uh, in the canvas space coming up here in the next few years.

I just heard, I think Colorado

was... uh, on the Vanguard, was the... uh, was the...

you know, at the front end of this,

was the guinea pig, was the experiment.

Colorado has done a lot to, I think, lose its place

as being kind of the driver of the cannabis industry.

[Ben] I've always seen this as a footrace

between the irrefutable evidence

and the amount of money that it takes to buy truth.

And, man, if you don't think the truth is for sale,

you haven't been in America long enough.

Like if you got enough money,

you can make anything real in this country.

A simple reality is that we know for a fact

the harms that this is causing, individually and societally,

but the question is, who will win the footrace?

The dissemination of science,

which most people don't seem to understand or care about,

or the people who's got enough money

to tell us it's all good.

So that's why I... That's why I've got the urgency with this

that I have, 'cause I feel like the window is short.

Because the bullhorn is so large

that proponents are yelling through.

So, yeah, well, it gets too big to fail,

because there's so much money behind it.

[Thomas] It's like putting lipstick on a pig.

Drug dealer is a drug dealer.

You know?

People have been getting robbed at gunpoint in dispensaries.

People have died for having these things.

You know, you wanna be a drug dealer,

you might have a drug dealer's ending.

Come to Colorado, we know about drugs.

We know, uh... It's what we do.

[closing theme music]

For people thinking that they know everything about,

you know, weed,

"'Cause I've been smoking for ten years, I've got this."

And you're like,

no one knows anything about weed.

They didn't legalize it to help black or Hispanic or minority.

They help white American.

The smartest thing and the best thing

isn't always what wins the day in America.

[laughs]

[fake cough] Donald Trump.

[snickers]

I can't remember now. Ah, it's a side effect.

[laughing]

This whole thing is about the money.

And we have to be careful, because you can become

so intoxicated with the money that you lose sight

of the cost of what all the social impacts are.

I mean, the last thing you want is the stack of five-dollar

and ten-dollar bills that smells like marijuana.

That is one of the most ridiculous question I have--

No, I'm kidding. I'm joking. [laughs]