planet but now scientists help that deploying discover will mean they are both forewarned and forearmed. dominic kane, al jazeera. >> just a reminder can you always keep up to date with all the news on our website, al aljazeera.com. >> it's regal. >> we have a half million dollar backlog on any day. >> it's lucrative. >> to 9.5 million for 2014. >> and it can be lethal. >> the house is on fire. >> the labs are as dangerous as explosive as popular if not more so than meth labs were. >> "america tonight's" exclusive, a year on pot.

it's been a year since colorado became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. if you are over 21 you can buy it smoke it eat it and drink it. for marijuana merchants it's been a year of weed wealth, of pot millionaires but exposed more risks. "america tonight's" lori jane gliha tells us there's a dark side to those rocky mountain highs. >> i had lost connection with reality. projectile vomiting. i'm going to have a heart attack right now. >> when jordan coombs took his family to the fair, he didn't expect to od on marijuana. the video designer says he and his wife parked the little boys with his father, while they checked out the pot pavilion there wasn't supposed to be any

actual pot there because it can only be sold at licensed sites. >> 21 and above. you are not allowed to buy it or smoke it. it looked like a willy wonka place. i started eating some chocolate. >> less than an hour later coombs said he became completely disoriented and begged his wife to take him to a hospital. medical authorities diagnosed him as an overdose of thc. he is one of several suing the company for thc poisoning. the treats known as edibles are the most particular items to hit the market since marijuana was legalized last year but also the source of a string of disturbing incidents.

last march, levi consumed a marijuana cook ie containing more than six servings of thc and jumped to his death off of a hotel balcony. sharp increase from previous years of marijuana ingestion and the state poison control center got records from 60 adults too. the string of incidents has called for banning of edibles. >> the influctuate of marijuana industry. >> one of the largest edibles manufacturing in colorado. >> what went through your mind when that suggestion came forward saying maybe we should bafn allban all edibles? >> the knee jerk reaction would be, holy mackerel. 750 million industry. the state of colorado is

profiting immensely off of this. >> why does it have to look like a candy? could it look like something not april tideappetizing to a child? >> it's not requiring a product to look in any form or fashion. i.t. just last the right for edibles to exist. >> forcing some off the shelves. >> yes, we lost about 30% of our product line to this new set of emergency rules. >> edibles are not the only form of potent marijuana to catch the state by surprise. cannabis concentrates, also known as dabs are one of the most fast-growing parts of the industry. up to 90% thc content. at this private marijuana social club on the outskirts of denver

almost everyone is dabbing . while dabs can be manufactured safely using expensive commercial equipment a rising number of home cooks are trying to make concentrates by watching how-to videos on youtube. >> you squish it down. >> the house is on fire! the house is on fire! >> using dangerously volatile solvents like bu butane. >> as explosive as meth labs now. >> kevin woj is wong tracks the growth of home thc extraction labs. >> they are holding a pyrex dish, once that ignition source ignites the actual fumes they go up in flames. they're in apartments, shared walls, condos, the impact of the neighbors.

this is one of our most recent ones where the actual structure caught on fire. >> according to wong, the number of explosions has doubled in the last year to 32 since retail legalization went into effect. >> and that is his legs. >> he showed us some of the cases he has been documenting. >> he has no king. completely singhed singed away. >> while a few cities like denver have recently enacted ordinance he against thc extraction, in many places it's still perfectly legal. >> we basically put marijuana -- i ground he it up a little bit. >> he survived a butane hash explosion in 2009. >> we are going to use butane, butane hash oil or bho.

>> despite suffering burns on his arms and face he went right to extracting thc. >> haven't you had occasions that didn't go well either? >> i haven't witnessed it, not going well unless there's a spark or flame around. >> you make this every day? >> i make it every day. >> the victims of these explosions often end up here at the university of colorado hospital's burn unit. dr. gordon lindburg is the unit's medical director. >> we have two in the last month and another one showed up just three days ago. >> lindburg noticed there was something different about the patients injured in beu butane hash explosions. >> we were giving them the narcotics that we usually used and it just wasn't working. >> on a hunch, the

doctor appetite. in other words he was actually giving them more thc. he noticed them a difference right away. >> their pain was a lot easier to manage. they didn't throw up a lot, they were able to keep calories in. >> he believes his marijuana haishts patients had been in thc withdrawal. >> we never had people falling off balconies or ending up in emergency rooms from frank psychosis from too much marijuana. now with these extraction methods you're dealing with almost pure thc and they are putting that into candy. >> so far, the numbers of small but the casualties may increase as the business grows and state authorities scramble to keep up.

>> when we come back, what do scientists know about the health risks of marijuana? it turns out, not much. >> heroin cocaine lsd, and mdna or ecstasy, all of these drugs are much easier to study than marijuana. >> music superstar akon >> it is a way for me to make money. it's clearly a business >> lending his voice to those in need >> i'm in a position where i can make a difference >> his goal, to have africa be part of the modern world >> if you wanna keep africa stable, there has to be elections >> every monday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera part of our special black history month coverage on al jazeea america

>> weigh states an the district of 23 states and the district of columbia yah. there is a reason for that. "america tonight's" jake ward with the story. >> aaron hind was 18 years old when he went to fight in iraq. >> some of the mortars came very close to the positions a couple of times, a couple of people in my company got killed. >> as many others the trauma of war followed him home. >> i would be at a park and all of a sudden my mind would go to, what would happen if a bomb fell on it. >> the side effects were too debilitating. then he started smoking pot. >> it allows me to focus on daily tasks that i normally might be in too much of an agitated state to be able to focus on.

it allows me to enjoy my life. >> hind is among 20 million americans who use marijuana on a daily basis. these are huge numbers it is uniquely difficult on a federal level to study marijuana. nobody can really do it. just because a couple of states have legalized it recreationally, doesn't make it any easier. some people feel marijuana may have potential medical benefits, but even though the country schoolsconsumes as much cannabis, there is no way to know for sure about it. based on nothing but anecdote. that's because the federal government has stifled research. we don't know if it can treat a soldier'ssoldier's ptsd.

>> i'm skeptical if it can treat ptsd. right now i could go out and you know tell a doctor that i'm suffering from angst and i need marijuana and i could get it and bring it back to my office and use it legally. but if i want to study its effect on the brain and the body that would take me maybe years and that's really crazy. >> heroin, cocaine lsd k mzna ecstasy, all of these drugs are much easier to study than marijuana. >> brad best of your knowledge working to legitimize marijuana. >> studying as i studying as piern or lsd that'saspirin or lsd. >> independent researchers

require an open ended health review unique to pot which can stall research forever. >> we have been looking for a study on marijuana particularly ptsd, for years now. >> the legal purchaser is the federal government, only authorized the study of potential harm not benefit. >> it's a choke point that prevents researchers from getting marijuana simply by withholding marijuana. researchers are not able to conduct the research. >> how do you account for this incredible discrepancies in how marijuana is treated versus how cocaine is treated? >> you have to look back at the rift history of marijuana which has been prohibited since the 1930s, our federal government has seen marijuana as the linchpin of the war on drugs.

>> the stigma of pot kept constance finley from using it for years. >> maybe at a party, six to eight times a year, you do it more often i felt like you had a problem. >> having a crippleing joint pain, she went online, and started distilling it underground. he says to me, how come you are so much better? i started shaking, he's going to think i'm a weirdo, a stoner he's going to discount everything i'm saying. i told him i'm afraid to tell you but i've been experimenting with making this high concentration oil for myself. it's been changing my life. he said o my god, we need that.

>> stage 4 cancer patients referred by their docket, the cost -- doctor. the cost of a three month treatment cycle is about $7,000. >> we are the number one operation in the world for cannabis oil. >> to date, there's been no studies made on finley's miracle oil. the benefits may be exaggerated. >> personally, in the test tube and animal models there may be an effect of highly concentrate ed cannabinoids. but when patients come to me with a curable malignancy saying they can treat it with cannabis oil. >> an integrated medicine specialists at the university of san francisco, one of the only

physician receiving a study of cannabis. >> it must be frustrating to see your patients as desperate as they are for a cure give money for totally unproven therapies. >> it is all anecdote, the plural of anecdote is not evidence. we need to do the research but our hands are tied because we can't really study cannabis as an effective treatment of anything. >> are you hopeful that in your career federal law will change? >> i used to say not in my lifetime, but i shouldn't short change my life. maybe we are coming to a tipping point. >> the pressure on the federal government now i think is greater than it has ever been to allow this research to go forward. >> in march the government finally granted

ed are burgess's group authority. >> that's setting up authority for the obama administration to step in. this won't require a vote or act of congress, an executive e-mail from president obama. >> this is a dollar bill method that's very handy if you don't know how to roll a joint really well. >> aaron hind isn't waiting for hard science. >> all i can do is shake my head at everybody, when it really is a beneficial drug. >> do you worry at all that marijuana can have negative long term consequences? >> if i didn't have pot as a coping mechanism if you took it away i would have turned to alcohol. i might have turned to something harder. i might have started inflicting self-harm. am i willing to give a little

piece of my long term memory or short term memory usage for evenness in my life? definitely. >> more of what you didn't expect from the year on pot. a growing industry of cannabis critics and marijuana moms. that's when we come back. >> i've managed to you know talk to people about a book deal and a television show and all of these things that keep coming along because i have this job. >> sunday night. >> 140 world leaders will take the podium. >> get the full story. >> there is real disunity in the security council. >> about issues that impact your world. >> infectious diseases are a major threat to health. >> "the week ahead". sunday 8:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do.

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>> colorado's year on pot has produced some expected wealth and some cashing in in ways you never imagined. just imagine a job in which you get paid to get high. here is "america tonight's" lori

jane gliha. >> i've managed to talk to people about a book deal and a television show and all of these things had a keep coming along because i have this job. >> the job is spoking pot. jake brown is a pot critic. >> sometimes it will have a very definitive smell but it doesn't come through in the taste. >> is there a way about breathing it in that you have perfected in order to taste flavors? >> it's pretty much inhaling. >> brown has been inhaling since high school and it's this experience that helped secure him a freelance gig at the denver post where he's a pot reviewer for a online post called the

cannabist. >> how many have you sam bled and reviewed? >> graham stomper sky walker and girl scout cookies. i've reviewed all but the chemical 4 and the mob boss. >> are you worried about people not taking you seriously, for coming up with these unique words for different types of pot? >> food or drink criticism if you crack open a microbrew and it's a stout you might smell coffee or chocolate notes. it's very, very comparable, it's a new and different arena. i know people are skeptical. they are very unique strains. >> a year ago, making a living sampling pot for a venerable newspaper like the denver post may have been unthinkable even

ludicrous, but the editors of the denver post, wanted to bring pot reviews and hard hitting interviews together in one place. >> what did you think the position would be? >> immediately i knew i had wanted it. it was a brand-new beat but i wasn't the most knowledgeable person in the newsroom, i wasn't the biggest stone are in the newsroom. i wanted to make sure they knew that and they said yes that's why we want you. >> baca was a former entertainment editor. >> were you a skeptical? >> i wasn't, you realize this is becoming very big business, this is paradigm shifting and the reason why people from all over the world from uruguay and spain

and israel and nevada and maine 2016. this is epicenter right now. >> one of baca's first challenges finding the best mix of people to write about weed. >> the denver post just announced that it will hire a pot editor. >> he got a little help with the hiring process by appearing on the colbert report. >> what are your experience? >> i'm hiring a pot editor. >> i don't know i need them in my editing room. >> suddenly i had 500 applications for pot critics. >> gold in here here is a pipe ash tray. >> brittany driver was the first to apply. >> i was just watching the colbert report, they were looking for pot critics. my husband was, well you should write in. all right i'll give it a try.

it definitely seemed surreal yeah, to be paid to smoke and talk about smoking weed is just very different. >> driver's blogs quickly evolved into something more personal. >> all right. >> pot and parenting. >> well, i think you're right. oh good job! >> two-year-old elliot is her son. >> i think my first column was just a call to hey, where are the weed-smoking moms at because i can go to the playground and see two moms connect say, hey we'll go have wine at the place around the corner. it's not as usual to say, hey do you want to go smoke a joint after the kids go to bed? >> how did you put it out there i really want them to know this is what i'm doing. >> i'm kind of an open book, so knowing there weren't a ton of moms females in general kind of

stepping out in general and saying hey i smoke weed i'm fine i'm intelligent, nothing is wrong with me. if i have the opportunity to could that i should. >> drivers column explores everything from marijuana spiked candy at halloween or even when to do if someone calls child protective services on a pot smoking mom like her. >> i pretty much felt like cps to show up on my doorstep. i'm writing about a different strain every single week. they say they liken it to alcohol. but if i'm in here drinking people outside aren't going to smell that. necessarily. if someone, one of my neighbors calls and say, i smell marijuana from his home that's enough for cps to come out and talk to me. >> driver says she doesn't smoke

pot around elliot. only after he goes to bed. but it's part of her life she says and she's glad it's part of her job, one she never imagined could be possible. >> it's awesome. it's great to have people know who i am. i've gone to places where, hey you're brittany from cannabis that's cool. >> so far things are looking up for the handful of staff at the cannabist. >> we've seen steady growth in reared ship. i was concerned, i thought this may be a flash in the pan. >> baca says, he knows there will come a time when marijuana journalism will no longer be exceptional. until then he's enjoying the trip. >> that's our look at colorado's year on pot. and what it may mean for other states as they consider legalizing marijuana. will it be a buzz boom?

or bust? i'm joie chen, thanks for joining us. >> america's job market is on a big winning streak but a lot of people out there are still feeling like they're losing. i'm talking to the top man in america's labor market. and this is a good time to be your own man but it is not easy. >> you don't know if the dream is going to succeed or fail. i can't guarantee a paycheck for the next 12 months, two years. >> plus how one well-known procure