beauties destined for a different life. neave barker, al jazeera. >> that dogs its for does it for us. stay tuned "america tonight" starts now. >> it's regal. >> it's legal. >> we have half a million dollar backlog on any given day. >> it's lucrative. >> we grew from 700,000 in 2012 to nine.5 million in 2014. >> and it could be life threatening. >> the house is on fire! >> as popular if not more so. >> an "america tonight" special a year on pot. it's been a year since colorado

became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. federal law still prohibits it, but if you are in colorado you can buy it, smoke it, eat it and drink it. weed wealth, a new crop of pot millionaires but it exposes more risks. "america tonight's" lori jane gliha, exposes rocky mountain highs. >> i was projectile vomit iting.ing. >> when jordan took his family to the fair, he never expected to od on marijuana. >> i thought i got poisoned. >> he and his wife parked their little boys with his father and checked out the pot pavilion.

there wasn't supposed to be any pot there because it could only be consolidate at licensed sites. >> it was 21 and up. you weren't allowed to buy it, smoke it. willie wonka thing. no thc no we're not allowed to have that here. i started eating the chocolate. >> he became totally totally disoriented. medical workers diagnosed him as a thc overdose. coombs is one of seven people suing the company for thc poisoning. the psychoactive treats known as edibles, since marijuana was legalizinged in colorado, also the source of a string of disturbing incidents. last march levi pongi schooled

a marijuana aie and jumped to his death from the fourth floor of his hotel. and 14 children under the age of ten went to one major children's hospital last year for marijuana ingestion. a sharp increase from previous years and the state's poison control center got reports from nearly 60 adults too. the string of incidents has prompted calls to ban edibles. >> fast company called us the google plex of the company a year ago. >> one of the largest edible manufactures in colorado. >> what went through your mind when that suggestion came forward saying maybe we should ban all edibles? >> the knee jerk reaction would have been, holy mackerel, my business is done. represents 50% of what is approximately a $750 million industry. the state of colorado is

profiting immensely off of this. >> why does have it to look unappetizing to a child? >> it is not specific to the constitutional amendment that requires a product to look in any form or fashion. it just allows for the rights of infused products to exist. >> state regulators issued emergency rules that limit the amount of thc in edibles. >> we lost 30% of our product line to this new set of emergency rules. >> cannabis concentrates also called dabs are one of the fastest growing segment of the industry. worth more per gram than gold. reaching up to 90% thc content. on this private marijuana social

club ton outscirs of outskirt of -- on the outskirts of denver almost everybody is dabbing. a rising number of home cooks are trying omake to make concentrates. >> the house is on fire! >> using dangerously volatile solvents like butane. >> the solvents are as dangerous as popular as meth labs now. >> kevin wong is a federal intelligence officer for four states in the rocky mountain area. and tracks the home thc labs. >> once that ignition source ignites the actual fumes they go up in flames. they're in apartments, shared walls, condos. the impact of the explosion can endanger your neighbors.

>> this is one of our most recent ones where the actual structure caught on fire. >> according to wong the number of explosions is more than doubled in the last year to 32, since retail legalization went into effect. >> and that's his legs. >> my. >> he shoad us slowed us some of the cases he was documenting. >> he has actually no skin here? >> completely singhed singed off. that is the skin peeling away. >> while recent ordinances, in some places it's still perfectly legal. >> we basically put marijuana i've grinded it up a little bit. >> you might call robert tillory lucky, he says he survived a butane hash explosion in 2009. >> going >> we're going to use butane.

>> he went right back to extracting thc. >> you do it out in a well ventilated area like this. >> but haven't you seen people outside that have done that and it doesn't go well either? >> i've never witnessed it not going well unless there was a spark or flame around. >> he says he has found a safe way to work with butane and wants to educate others. >> you make it every day? >> i make it every day. >> university of colorado's burn unit dr. gordon lindbergh is the hospital's medical director. lindbergh noticed there was something different in the butane accidents. >> we were giving them the narcotics that we usually used and it wasn't working.

>> on a hunch the doctor gave them maranol more thc. he noticed a difference right away. >> their pain was easier to manage they didn't throw up, they were able to keep calories in. >> he believed they were on marijuana withdrawal and needed the thc to recover. >> what i worry about is how much marijuana people are taking now as a result of these laws. we never had people falling off of balconies or ending up in emergency rooms with frank psychosis from too much marijuana. we haven't had people withdrawing from it. but now you're dealing with almost pure thc and putting that in candy. >> so far the numbers are 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. >> haven cocaine thc mdna, ecstasy, all of these are much easier to study than marijuana. marijuana.

>> 23 states and the district of columbia now allow marijuana use in some form. but as more and more states are going legal astonishing about the effects of the drug and 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 couple of people in my company got killed. >> the traumas of war followed him home. >> i would be in a park and all of a sudden my brain would be wandering around, what would the scene be like if a big bomb dropped open 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 or anxious state to be able to focus on. it allows me to enjoy my life. >> hind is one of 20 million americans who use marijuana on a daily basis. it is uniquely difficult to study marijuana nobody can do it. just because a couple of states have legalized it recreationally, lots of people feel marijuana may have

potential medical benefit. right now as the country schools as much cannabis as it is, it is almost impossible to know anything for sure about the long term effects. >> as states are passing world changing laws they're based on nothing but anecdote. we don't know how pot affects driving or life expectancy or really anything. we don't know if it can treat a soldier's ptsd. >> i'm dubious that marijuana will be a treatment for ptsd. >> keith humphreys is a senior research science for department of veterans affairs. >> right now i could go out and tell a curb doctor that i'm -- a cush doctor had a i'm suffering from angst. but instead if i want marijuana to study it, what what its effect

son the brain and the body. that would take me years. and that's crazy. >> heroin and lsd all these things are easier to study than marijuana. studying aspirin or prozac or lsd, all we have to do is get the drug and start the study. for marijuana we go through a whole different area of reviews. >> three separate agencies and even independent researchers require an open ended public health review unique to pot which can stall research forever. >> we have been working to get a study started on medical marijuana for 12 years now and that approval is just to purchase marijuana. >> the legal supplier for marijuana for research well it's the federal government. specifically the national institute on drug abuse which

has traditionally only authorized the study of potential harm not benefit. >> it is 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 how marijuana is treated how cocaine is treated? >> you have to look back at the history of marijuana which has been our government has seen marijuana as the linchpin of the war on drugs can be demonized in a very specific way. >> she has a rare autoimmune disorder. >> it was okay to do at a party maybe six to eight times a year. you did it more often i felt like you had a problem. >> driven by crippling joint pain she went online and read about the potential benefits of

oil. she started to make it underground. >> i asked this doctor, he said how come you're so much better, i started shaking i was like he is going to think i'm a weirdo, he's going to think i'm a stoner. but i said, i'm afraid to tell you, i've been making this oil for myself. it's allowing me to sleep it's allowing me to get through day it's changing my life. he said oh my god everybody here needs that. >> she sells her product to about 125 patients a year. the cost is about $7,000. >> we are number one in the world in cannabis oil. this tiny operation. >> to date, no studies have been done on finley's miracle oil.

>> personally i believe in the test tube and in animal models there might be some effect in highly concentrateed kotchman comab cannabinoids. >> specialty at university of california san francisco. he is one of the only physicians that has ever received permission to study cannabis, it can relieve pain but not a cure for anything. >> it must be discouraging to see your patients, give money for totally unproven therapies. >> it's an anecdote and the plural of anecdote is not evidence. our hands are tied because we can't study cannabis as an

effective treatment for anything. >> are you hopeful that federal law will be changed and it will be easy tore change cannabis? >> i used to say not in my lifetime but i shouldn't short change my life. we are seeing so much change that 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 burgess group the permission to study the effect of but is waiting for the plants to be delivered. >> that is setting up a political opportunity now for the obama administration to step in. this won't require a vote or an act of congress an executive e-mail from president obama requiring that they end their review process. >> so 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 and laugh at are. it really is a beneficial drug. >> do you worry at all that marijuana could 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. and 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 talk to people about a book deal and otelevision show and all of these things that keep coming

look because i have this job. job. >> al jazeera america presents a breakthrough television event. >> borderland long held beliefs... >> im really pissed off at the mexican government... >> give way to compassion... >> if you feel tired, would you turn around and come back? >> our teams find out first hand how treacherous the migrants journey can be. >> we make them take a trip of death >> it is heartbreaking when you see the families on top of the rail car borderland continues 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. al jazeera america.

>> 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 that keep coming along because i have this job. >> the josh is smoking 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 like breathing it in that you have perfected in order to taste the 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 new online blog called the cannabist. >> to be their guide through that i thought was a real honor. >> the cannabist launched over a year ago after colorado's marijuana law which makes it leelitlegal for brown to light up. >> how many have you reviewed? >> grape stomper skywalker and

girl scout cookies. i've also had the mob boss number 4. >> are you worried about people not taking you seriously, for coming up with these intricate words for differently 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. but when you come here and see it firsthand they are very definitely 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 bosses at the denver post thought otherwise. they wanted someone like robert baca to bring hard hitting news together in one place.

>> what did you think the position would be? >> immediately i wanted it. it was a brand-new beat but i wasn't the most knowledgeable person in the newsroom, i wasn't the biggest stoner 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 skeptical at all of being a marijuana editor? >> i wasn't. if you have been in the colorado area for any time in the last few years 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 and the people in nevada and california and maine who are trying to legalize it in 2016. this is epicenter right now. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. if you know anyone? >> i don't know of anyone i could suggest i need them in my editing room. >> suddenly i had 500 applications for pot critics. >> gold in here here is a pipe ash tray. >> reporter: brittany driver was one of 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 -- a bit more personal.

>> all right. >> reporter: pot and parenting. >> i think you're right. oh good job! >> reporter: 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 go there and say, hey do you want to go smoke a joint after the kids go to bed? >> reporter: how do you put it out there? >> i knew there weren't a ton of moms females in general kind of stepping out saying, i smoke weed i'm intelligent nothing a's wrong with me. if i have an opportunity to do that i circulate.

>> 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 expected cps to show up on my doorstep. in the first six months of me doing this. why not? i'm a plom, i'm writing about -- i'm a mom 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 spell 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. >> reporter: 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 the cannabist, that's cool. >> reporter: so far things are looking up for the handful of staff at the cannabist. growth outside colorado. >> we've seen steady growth in readership. i was concerned, i thought this may be a flash in the pan. >> reporter: 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.

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