All language subtitles for Pot.Luck.2020.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[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]