tv The Profit CNBC January 7, 2018 1:00am-2:00am EST
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[ mid-tempo rock music plays ] >> more than a year has passed since colorado became the first state in the nation to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. but sometimes the line between what's legal and what isn't is still a little hazy. this is not the first time cops have been called to this head shop in wheat ridge.
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>> so [bleep] what? >> neighbors complain because customers smoke marijuana outside, which is still illegal. >> the scene creates a convenient metaphor -- the pot boom in colorado comes complete with growing pains. >> i don't feel like cooperating with you, officer. >> oh, i understand you don't. >> you're making my day extremely hard. there's no reason i would cooperate with you. >> sir, if you don't want to cooperate with us, it'll be duly noted. >> we were there at the beginning... [ all cheering ] ...reporting a year ago on the blissful rollout of legal weed. >> it's part of history. >> we spoke with governor john hickenlooper, who opposed the new law, but had to implement it. >> i think most of us recognize that this is gonna be one of the great social experiments of the next century.
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>> today, that experiment is very much a work in progress. >> but when you're doing it for the first time, there's no -- there's no template. >> some things work, some don't. but know this -- there's money being made. colorado is now home to more than 500 pot stores. one of the biggest is called medicine man. here's an industry that doesn't even exist in colorado five years ago. five years later, you have cloud technology to operate your grow rooms. >> yeah. it's been a wild ride, i got to tell you. >> we're not a bunch of stoners sitting around in tie-dye t-shirts, you know, smoking pot. it is a true american industry. >> andy williams and his sister, sally vander veer, along with their brother pete, run the company. their high-tech grow facility produces 120 pounds of pot a week. >> so, how you doing? >> what's up, man? >> welcome to medicine man, brother. >> thank you. >> we do more business out of this one location than anybody else. we're opening a second, and it's
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gonna do more business than this location. and we are drinking from a fire hose. >> they are pioneers in the bewildering wilderness of legal weed. the federal government still views marijuana as a schedule i drug, so most banks won't come near it. can you bank yet? do you have a relationship with a bank? >> that's a really good story. we've lost countless banks. >> we've lost a lot of banks so... >> you know a bank kicked us out after we sent a check to the federal government for taxes this year. >> they shut us down april 14th, yeah.>> it's boom time in the cl of cannabis. >> we did about $4.5 million last year. >> what do you think you're gonna do this year? >> a little over $9 million. >> double in one year? >> yep. >> and then next year, probably $18 million. >> an eighth and an eighth? >> correct. >> medicine man opened its doors
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in 2010 as a medical-marijuana dispensary on the outskirts of denver. you're in the middle of a warehouse district in the middle of nowhere. >> location, location, location. and we screwed that up but -- >> and yet everybody's here. that bad location and some good timing came together in a happy accident. >> i would suggest my blue dream. it's a really good 60/40 split hybrid. >> okay. >> we're the closest dispensary to the airport. so people land, and they drive here, and they come here first, and then they go up the mountains and have a good time. so about 60% of our sales are tourist. >> so, how long are you guys in town for? >> a couple more days. >> people are getting to be connoisseurs in colorado. they want to have a large selection, and they want to try something that smells like cheese and something that's like wine. >> medicine man has thrived by satisfying the palates of aficionados. >> but this bucket -- good, dense buds -- $30,000. >> pete williams runs the growing operation, cultivating up to 70 different strains at a
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time. >> this is the girl scout cookies. oh, it just hits you in the face. it smacks you. [ sniffs ] it's a little bit fuelly, a little bit skunky. it's got a little of everything in there, and it just tastes so good, and the high on this one is more towards that top-end high, the maximum high. i personally smoke this most nights. it's my favorite. >> an estimated 33 million americans used marijuana in 2013. that's up nearly a third from a decade ago. since colorado led the charge for legalization, three more states and the district of columbia have followed suit. and nearly half the country now allows medicinal marijuana. >> it's clearly the fastest growing industry in the country. >> troy dayton leads arcview, a cannabis-focused investor group. >> in 2013, the size of the national legal cannabis market was about $1.5 billion, growing
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in 2014 to $2.6 billion. >> at a sprawling marijuana-business expo in las vegas, he said ancillary companies are cashing in. >> all right. let's see. what do we got here? >> mark twain had a really great quote. he said that, "when there's a gold rush on, it's a good time to be in the pick-and-shovel business." and that is clearly happening right now. [ sirens wailing ] >> you can see it on the streets of denver, where gun-toting guards and armored cars protect the currency of the new marijuana merchants. dan sullivan's blue line security company can't train people fast enough. >> we went from 6 employees to over 70, so that gives you an idea of, in eight months, what we've done. >> and at grow big, a garden-supply center for the cannabis trade that's living up to its name, sales have quadrupled in the past year. >> we started at 800 square feet less than four years ago. we're at 50,000 square feet, and we're not stopping there. >> owner oliver poiss hosts a weekly customer meet-and-greet
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with free pot... [ electronic dance music plays ] ...catering to a clientele with nocturnal habits. >> this community is night owls. we're open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. we never close. i don't even have a key to the front door. >> 2014 launched poiss and many others on a trip from the margins of society to the mainstream. >> prior to legalization, this was difficult. i've gradually come to realize that it's changed my life so much over the past year. >> hillary cooper makes artisanal pipes for pot and hash oil, some selling for more than $500. >> i recently got a wholesale distributor that buys all of my work. i can't even keep up with my orders at this point. >> every problem this industry faces is an opportunity for another entrepreneur to start a business to fill that gap. >> colorado's pot trade may be moving at breakneck speed, but
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many here still think it's a bad idea. >> do you have anything that's a little bit stronger than that? >> as for the williams family, they're not looking back. do you any sort of moral misgivings about this? >> absolutely not. >> we're not here to make people start smoking marijuana. that's not our intent. we're here to provide safe marijuana for people who have always been buying it and who want to buy it. >> what are you gonna look like two years from now, three years from now, five years from now? >> well, we're the costco of the grow, the starbucks of the retail. yeah, that's what we'll look like. it'll be big. >> coming up, legalization was supposed to kill the black market, so why is it thriving? >> you start off with a pound. if you're comfortable with the person that you're dealing with, then you offer them more than a pound. >> a visit to the underground pound. >> a visit to the underground when we come back.
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>> ...take a look at colorado's craigslist, where a booming black market in weed is just a click away. we contacted dozens of these sellers. most wouldn't talk, but some did. you were in the army. >> yes, sir. >> how many years? >> i served almost 10 years. i was in 11bravo my entire tour, with the infantry. i've been everything from a rifleman private to a squad leader to an assistant team leader of a scout-sniper team. >> how many tours in iraq? >> two. and...it was brutal. [ gunfire ] >> ben buckland left the army in 2013, physically and psychologically damaged. >> hell yeah! >> did you get injured over there? >> yeah, yeah. i was injured once in fallujah, and i was injured once in basra, and i was injured once in afghanistan. i have a traumatic brain injury, so i forget things constantly. i get headaches for no apparent
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reason. my ability to curb my anger with the smallest ripples in life is really hindered. like, i go off the hinge. >> buckland was in desperate need of relief. >> what the va had to offer were pills that i could die from if i took too many at once, that i would die slowly from as i took them as prescribed. cannabis allows me to have my life again, whereas i would probably be a threat to society. >> legal weed brought him to colorado. so, you have your medical-marijuana registry state of colorado red card. >> yes. >> and so what's your... >> 75 plants. >> you can grow 75 -- >> yes. >> that's a lot of cannabis, and buckland has found a ready market for his surplus. in a given year, what kind of income... >> i might make 10 grand a year.
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>> just 60% of the pot consumed in colorado is sold legally. the rest comes from big-time operators or homegrown suppliers like buckland. how does it work? >> so, i put out on craigslist -- i post around pueblo, denver, things like that, and people will e-mail me and say, "hey, i live around this area. i need this much. i'm looking to spend this much." >> right. >> "do you think you could help me out?" i'll meet you up at that 24-hour, all right? >> but it's a commerce rationalized in a code -- words like "donating" and "caregiving," not "buying" and "selling." [ engine idling ] >> what up, man? >> what's up, man? there's no selling. i'm not selling anything. >> great, great. great. >> he's just giving me some money, and i'm just giving him some cannabis. >> yeah, man. just a thousand times before, you know? you know, he offers medicine to me for a donation. >> ray green is a regular. >> hey, thanks a lot. i appreciate it, man.
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>> he can buy in dispensaries, but buckland is just a phone call away. >> being after hours, and the stores close at 7:00, and it's convenient sometimes to have a caregiver. >> and cheaper -- taxes as high as 36% and purchasing limits on pot push buyers to the black market. >> usually a gram is $10, but it's top-shelf, and it's how you want it. if you like the grape-tasting stuff, you can have the grape-tasting stuff. if you want the go-to-sleep stuff, we can get the go-to-sleep stuff. >> and is it less expensive than if i went into a store? >> it would be...a third of the cost. here. got you that. >> thank you. >> somebody's gonna watch this and say, "i don't care what his background is. i don't care what his life story is. this guy is a drug dealer. you're a drug dealer, and what you're doing is wrong." what would you say to that person? >> i would say the state of colorado has decided that this particular drug is not a schedule i drug.
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and i would say that our president has said on tv that this drug is no more harmful or harmless than alcohol or tobacco. >> these people are not licensed to sell marijuana. >> john suthers was colorado's attorney general for the past decade. a year into the new law, he says the pot underground is thriving. i think people say, "well, geez. there's legalization. how can there still be a black market?" where -- where's the black market? >> the black market starts at a very basic level -- people going in, buying it legally, walking out, and selling it illegally. that's how the kids are getting it. 38% of kids that have marijuana tell us they get it from somebody who bought it legally. >> the biggest problem, he says, is that colorado has become a pot exporter. >> the truly large black market is the extent to which we're becoming the supplier of marijuana in states where it's illegal. so we are the black market for nebraska.
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we're the black market for wyoming, utah, and apparently up to 40 other states in the united states that have indicated to us, "we've seized colorado-packaged marijuana." >> in fact, nebraska and oklahoma are suing colorado in the u.s. supreme court, arguing they've suffered "direct and significant harm" from the pot crossing their borders. suthers says the suit is without merit, but comes as no surprise. you're the new mexico. >> we are. at least with marijuana, we're competing with mexico. are we eliminating the criminal element? i'm not too sure. there's certainly no indication that the presence of the cartels in colorado has been reduced. >> and then there are the wholesalers. mike -- not his real name -- says he sells between 150 and 200 pounds of pot a year -- even to licensed shops. what does a pound go for? >> between a range of $2,500 and $3,000.
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but i usually sell to people who sell it to other people. >> ah. >> so i'm kind of like a broker, not really just a regular seller. >> how do you transport the stuff? >> you put it in the mail like everybody else does. i mean, you want to buy some sneakers from amazon, [chuckles] send them your address, and they'll put it in the mail. i mean, at the end of the day, right, would you get in a car and drive with a whole bunch of weed cross-country? >> mike says he keeps an attorney on retainer, though he thinks his chances of getting caught are slim. >> it's never really the actual weed that the police come after you for, unlike if you're in new york and you standing around and you have a blunt in your pocket or you're smoking a blunt, and they're gonna throw you on the floor, tase you, and shoot you. over here, they'll probably ask you, "how you doing? how's your day?" >> so for now, mike keeps dealing. colorado and its unofficial state flower have been good to him. >> you take your plant, you love your plant, you talk to your plant, and it gives you back.
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>> colorado's alluring landscape has drawn a lot of people here through the years, but it's not the scenery that's bringing some folks here now. >> i got this. >> braden fleming is 10 years old. we met him playing outside his colorado springs home. he and his family just moved here from texas. >> i know you're doing that on purpose. >> [ chuckles ] >> howdy. i'm harry. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> for braden, it was a good day. you're a handsome young man.
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>> thank you. >> you're welcome. but this is what it looks like on a bad day -- sudden, small, and uncontrollable seizures. braden suffers from a form of epilepsy called doose syndrome. can you talk about what it's like for you? >> well, it is kind of like closing my eyes sleeping, except i'm talking in my sleep, feels like. >> yeah. >> good job, buddy. >> desperate for help they can only get in colorado, the flemings came here for one thing -- a rare type of medical marijuana. and remarkably, they don't even know if it will work. so, you moved your entire family, changed everything in your lives to come here to get this medicine that you haven't even tried yet?
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>> both: right. >> that's a big hope. >> yeah, but it's hope. >> it's hope. >> braden's parents -- terry and wendy fleming. how old was braden when you began to realize he had some problems? >> he was 15 months old, and he was walking past me, and i saw his head drop, and he went... and then he just kept walking, and i went, "oh, that's not good." >> we really didn't start to notice a lag until he started kindergarten. that's when we really started getting concerned and saying, "well, maybe he's not gonna grow out of this." >> and he hasn't. do you ever watch sports? >> yeah, yeah. >> we witnessed one right in the middle of our conversation. >> or...i...watch baseball. >> was that one right there? >> mm-hmm. >> so you just had a little seizure right there.
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>> mm-hmm. but it was a short one. >> just a little one. >> yeah. >> yeah. you can't control it, can you? >> mnh-mnh. >> it just happens. >> mm-hmm. >> along with 12,000 other children nationwide, braden is on the waiting list for a medicine called "charlotte's web." it's named after charlotte figi, a colorado child with a severe form of epilepsy called dravet syndrome. >> [ breathing shakily ] >> this unsettling video shows charlotte before the medicine. and this is charlotte after. she's now almost completely seizure-free. >> [ smacks lips ] >> charlotte's web is a strain of marijuana that has very little thc, the property that is psychoactive, but it has a lot of cbds, the mystery compound that many believe has significant medicinal value. i'm just gonna guess -- you are not cannabis-using people. >> no. >> no. >> didn't know the first thing
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about it. >> [ laughs ] federal law prohibits transporting marijuana across state lines, so the flemings couldn't get charlotte's web in texas, leaving them, they say, with little choice. >> we packed up our house, shoved three kids and two dogs in the van, and we drove out here. and here we are. >> how's your new school? >> it's pretty good. i made some friends, but there's a kid next to me, and it's trouble. >> yeah? really? >> today he gave me a bad compliment. >> what he tell you? >> he said, "hey, where've you been, smoking weed?" >> [ chuckling ] really? that's what he said to you? medicinal marijuana has been legal in colorado since 2001, with claims that it helps everything from arthritis to
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ptsd. but for serious scientists, the so-called healing ingredient remains something of an enigma. >> cbd is something that has captured the national imagination, political imagination, the furor of the medical community. does it work? does it not work? let us study it so we can find out. >> dr. edward maa runs the comprehensive epilepsy center at denver health hospital. he's been studying the effect of charlotte's web on kids with dravet syndrome. >> charlotte's web is one of the newest things in terms of our potential armamentarium. when we think about antiseizure drugs and the drug-development pipeline, this is one of the things that has very, very exciting promise. >> but he cautions its overall effectiveness needs more study. research shows charlotte's web reduces seizures in less than a third of the children using it. >> the impact size is not as large as perhaps was being
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touted in parts of the media. 20% to 30% are having a pretty dramatic reduction, and it just tails off from there. >> we need to change the perspective of what people think of cannabis. >> still, at least 200 families have moved to colorado just to get charlotte's web -- a fellowship of moms and dads with nowhere else to turn. >> refugee families -- medical refugees. we are leaving our home states for a medicine. we are going and uprooting and changing every aspect of our lives so our children have a chance at hope. yes, it's... >> jennie storms and her son, jackson, moved to colorado springs from new jersey just two weeks before we sat down to talk. jackson is 15 and suffers from dravet syndrome. unlike braden fleming... >> okay, come on. >>...he's already getting charlotte's web. >> so that's how he takes cannabis. >> you know this is making a difference. >> i've seen it work. my son would probably be dead today if it wasn't for cannabis.
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this isn't about getting high. this isn't about using marijuana. this is about giving a child and anybody with an illness or a disorder the opportunity to have compassion, to have relief, to not feel pain. >> so, this is it? >> this is it. this is the charlotte's web. >> that's what you get. >> this is what we get. >> what does it cost? >> it's $1,000 for this bottle. and that's a month's supply. >> could you get what you needed for jackson in new jersey? >> no, and to this day, i still can't. that's why i had to move to colorado. >> what does that feel like to think you can get in trouble with the law when all you're trying to do is help your kid? >> you're gonna make me cry. it's hard. but i need to save my son's life. and if someone doesn't stand up and say, "i need this for my child -- it's saving his life..." then who's going to? >> what if it doesn't work? >> yeah. >> we'll keep trying.
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i mean, we keep trying. that's what we have to do. >> how happy would you be if you could live your life every day not having these seizures anymore. >> i would love that. it'd feel like i'm in heaven probably. yep. >> together: amen. >> just before christmas, braden got off the waiting list and started taking charlotte's web. it's too soon to say if it will help him. coming up, you can smoke your pot and eat it, too... >> got the peach bar, the blueberry bar. got the monkey bar. >>...tasty, legal, and soaked in controversy. >> i think that's an invitation for problems for kids. because what ends up happening is kids inadvertently eat it. >> the edibles explosion when we is kids inadvertently eat it. >> the edibles explosion when we come back.
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is kids inadvertently eat it. >> the edibles explosion when we come back. i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. the center of the how canneighborhood?r house first, mix liquid gold velveeta with the one-two kick of ro*tel's diced tomatoes and spicy green chilies. then, find space for extra parking. lots and lots of parking. that's why feeling safe is priceless. with adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only $49.00. call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes
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>> a year into the brave new world of legal marijuana, and one thing is for sure -- people in colorado love their pot. [ laughter ] folks here are consuming it in every way you can imagine -- and some you can't. of course, many are still smoking it, burning buds in a joint or a pipe. but more than a third of the pot
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in colorado is consumed in other forms. >> down here, off to the side, is some very lovely shatter. and then we have some awesome wax over here, also known as crumble. >> all right. ready? and go ahead and pull. >> this is called "dabbing." >> this is a titanium nail that you got to heat up so it'll actually vaporize this. it's a concentrate. >> dabs of concentrated and super-potent pot known as shatter or wax are heated and inhaled. >> you guys want to join in, just step in, and someone will pass you a hose. >> then there are vape pens -- e-cigarettes that vaporize hash oil. but perhaps the most popular alternative to smoking pot is eating it. >> tastes like candy, just like a pixy stick. not for children, though. >> and the array of choices is staggering. >> chocolate, candy, drinks. we have these incredible bars, which are ranging from 25 to 100 milligrams. >> what are these things right
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here? >> these are our dixie rolls. they're our chocolate products. >> right. >> we also make a very high-quality truffle. we make what's called a "colorado bar." >> chuck smith is a co-founder of dixie brands. dixie wants to be the general mills of edible marijuana. >> i still want to reinforce that dixie is the iconic brand. we are the largest what are called "infused-products manufacturer" in the state of colorado. we make sodas, tinctures, mints. we also do topicals, lotions, and salves and balms all infused with cannabis. >> dixie has been supplying the medical market since 2009. but in the first two months of 2014, smith says dixie's revenues jumped 500%. so, in this first year, how significant an impact has recreational sales been vis-à-vis what you were doing before during old medical days? >> on december 31st of last year, there were about 100,000
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card-carrying patients in colorado. on january 1st, that number turned into about a million consumers. and that was an estimate of about a half a million in-state recreational consumers and then another half a million to a million tourist consumers that came in. >> is there some lollipops, as well? >> yeah, we do have lollipops. >> one million new, legal, recreational users, curious and eager... [ siren wailing ] ...and sometimes inexperienced -- biting off more than they can chew. [ monitor beeping ] >> what happens clinically is that they get very sweaty, they often become nauseous, they become agitated, and their heart beats very, very fast. >> dr. andrew monte is a toxicologist with the university of colorado hospital emergency department. >> the problem is that somebody takes it if they're looking to get intoxicated and they don't feel an effect rapidly, then they take more and more and more. and you can see how rapidly they can stack doses and take too much. >> you've got to start low and
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go slow. >> bob eschino is a founding partner of incredibles, an edibles manufacturer that has doubled in size in the last year. people think edibles are dangerous. do you understand that concern? >> i understand where they're coming from, but from the industry standpoint, the edibles now are safer than they've ever been. >> they buy an edible. they sit down in their hotel room. >> mm-hmm. >> they eat a piece. they wait 45 minutes. nothing's happened. >> that's all part of the problem. >> so then they eat the whole thing. >> [ laughs ] >> and then what happens? >> that is all part of the problem. what we're telling people -- "if you want to get high right now, smoke. get a vape pen." >> so from your perspective, this is all learning curve? >> yeah, yeah. i think it's a -- where are we now? we're 10 months into a brand-new industry. >> public-service billboards urge beginners to use caution. [ keypad beeping ] but going slow can be tough when
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one recreational edible can have as much as 100 milligrams of thc. did you ever try to eat just half a candy bar? >> patients and people that use this drug need to understand that a 10-milligram is a serving size. it's the equivalent to a drink. and so when a cookie comes with 100 milligrams, that's the equivalent of having, say, 10 drinks, which would be far too many for most people. >> the edibles industry has responded with a range of low-dose products with names like dixie one and rookie cookie. >> i'd much rather see you get very little effect and come back than to overmedicate and not want to try an edible again. >> the truth is, marijuana overdoses are not epidemic. the university of colorado hospital sees a couple a week, though there have been some problems with children mistaking edibles for candy. food giant hershey even sued and stopped one company from selling pot chocolates that looked an
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awful lot like the popular brands. the denver police were concerned enough about edibles they warned parents to look out for pot-infused candy at halloween. >> thank you. >> the threat never materialized. but the concern -- some say panic -- still remains. >> there's also the issue of accidental ingestion by adults. >> which led the state department of health to propose -- unsuccessfully -- a ban on most edibles. here's what bothers some people. >> yeah? >> if a kid sees this sitting on a coffee table, a kid is -- there's nothing that's gonna stop that kid from eating that. >> you are correct. a kid should never see this sitting on a coffee table -- ever. a kid should not see a pile of vicodin sitting on a coffee table. a kid should not see an open bottle of beer. a kid should not see a loaded gun sitting on a coffee table. this is a controlled substance, all right? if you want to make sure that your children don't get ahold of this, put it in the hands of licensed manufacturers.
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>> in colorado, legal marijuana has arrived wrapped in gourmet chocolate with a lingering aroma of controversy. coming up, if pot is legal, why did he lose his job? if you smoke a joint at 7:00 at night and you test the next morning, what happens? >> you don't pass. you smoked a joint two weeks ago, you don't pass. >> the workplace problem when we ago, you don't pass. >> the workplace problem when we come back.
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this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. [ bell dinging ] in denver's hot golden triangle neighborhood... [ machinery whirring ] ...the noise from construction is a sign of good times. there's plenty of work. is that your building? you're building that building right there? >> that's my company's building, yeah. >> yeah. bryon white is one half of milender white, a growing construction company with more than a hundred employees and an hr problem unique to colorado. do you worry that you've got guys on the job that may be using marijuana? >> you bet. what we do is a very dangerous business. when you're on a construction site, you need to have all your faculties. >> white's employees are subject
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to random drug testing. a positive result for marijuana will get you fired, even though recreational pot is legal here. have you had to fire anybody because of marijuana use? >> we have terminated one who failed a random drug test. >> could you tell if he'd used it yesterday or used it three weeks ago? >> nope. nope. couldn't tell. [ rock music plays, indistinct chatter ] >> colorado's marijuana laws are contradictory, but clear -- employers can still fire anyone who tests positive for pot. but not all workers are getting that message. positive marijuana tests in colorado are up by double digits. >> we have a saying in our company that, "every employee needs to go home at the end of the day to see their loved ones." and you've got to be sober on a jobsite to do that. >> and while bryon white has one eye on the safety of his workers, he's also watching the
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state supreme court, which is deciding a case that could influence workplace marijuana laws across the country. >> mr. coats was employed full time at dish for three years, and during that time, he never possessed, used, or requested accommodation for medical marijuana in the workplace. >> they are talking about brandon coats. when he was just 16, a car accident left him a quadriplegic. coats is now 35 and a licensed user of medical marijuana. how important is medical marijuana to your day-to-day life? >> well, it's very important. it allows me to live a more normal life -- the most normal life that i'm able to. >> back in 2007, coats started working as a customer-service rep at dish network. dish is headquartered in englewood, colorado. >> they have a ranking on the wall of where you are. i was always in the top five percent. i never had a write-up. i was always on time. i was -- i did good, yeah. >> then he began having trouble with debilitating muscle spasms.
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so, it was while you were employed at dish tv that doctors recommended you try medical marijuana? >> right. >> how would you use it? >> sometimes, if i was getting a spasm attack, i'd do it right after work. but it was normally right before bed, kind of help me not spasm so i could sleep through my night. it would usually last 24 hours, but sometimes, after work, i would need to smoke a little bit when i got home. >> you know, there'll be skeptics who look at this and say, "this guy just wants to be able to be stoned while he's at work." what would you say to them? >> i would say that they need to spend about a week in my shoes -- not even a week, maybe a couple hours -- and they'll be changing their minds. >> one day in 2010, coats failed a random drug screening, testing positive for pot. two weeks later, dish fired him. what was it like for you when they said, "we don't want you to work here anymore"? >> well, it was devastating. i mean, it's hard enough for
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somebody like me to get a job. people look at me like they probably don't think that i can do what i can, you know? >> dish declined our request for an interview. appearing before the state supreme court, its attorney argued that zero tolerance means zero tolerance. >>...that the policy states that, "the employee cannot appear at work or be on work premises with alcohol or any detectable amount of any prohibited substance." >> did you think, because you had a medical-marijuana card, that you had license to go ahead and use it? >> well, i was under the impression that we had passed a law and that we had made it legal. >> more important -- failing a drug test doesn't mean he was high at the time. >> problem with thc is it's a tattletale drug. it's unlike any other drug that exists. you smoke it, and it's there for 40 days. >> michael evans is brandon coats' lawyer.
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>> if it went away like alcohol, if it went away like cocaine, if it went away like heroin, if it went away like opiates and percocet, we wouldn't have this conversation because... >> they sued dish to get coats' job back, claiming what he did during his off hours was none of the company's business. >> this case is about what happens when the lights go off, you punch out, and you go home in the privacy of your own home. does that long arm of your employer reach into a place where even police have to get a warrant to go into? >> they said that, because i tested positive for thc, that i would no longer be employed there and that they were turning me in to my licensing board. >> this registered nurse asked not be identified. she's 36 years old, lives in the denver area, and uses marijuana recreationally. >> it's just like having a glass of wine after work. i chose to do something else, which is legal.
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i did not go to work impaired, nor have i ever. >> not only did she lose her hospital job, she might be stripped of her nursing license, pending a decision by the state's medical review board. >> nobody's endorsing people being high on the job, particularly healthcare professionals. >> cathy klein is the nurse's lawyer. she says there needs to be a better way to determine if a person is actually high or not. >> it's not just a colorado problem. it's gonna be a national problem. there needs to be a test to determine current impairment. >> and that's exactly what they're building at lifeloc technologies in denver. "ravi" ravishankar is overseeing development of a next-generation breathalyzer. >> it's absolutely a priority. it's probably the top item that we are working on. >> it will determine who is and who isn't under the influence of pot. >> it's not what you had three
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hours ago or two days ago. it's what's happening right now at the very present point in time. >> and while lifeloc races to make that first-ever pot breathalyzer... >> let's go to the playground. >>...brandon coats is waiting for a decision from the colorado state supreme court. he's already lost two lower-court battles. this has been going on for four years. why keep at it? >> because i want to work one day. i don't want to go the rest of my life without working. maybe i can make it so i can be employed, so i can live a regular life like everybody else. >> coming up, the accidental pot tycoon. >> all of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks, and i go, "oh! this isn't lavender. this is all cannabis." >> riding the cannabis boom when this is all cannabis." >> riding the cannabis boom when we return.
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thisrunning a small business >> ris demanding.nabis boom when we return. and that's why small business owners need more. like internet that's up to the challenge. the gig-speed network from comcast business gives you more. with speeds up to 20 times faster than the average. that means powering more devices, more video conferencing, and more downloads in seconds, not minutes. get fast internet and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more per month.
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comcast is building america's largest gig-speed network to give small businesses more. call 1-800-501-6000 today. [ wind rushing ] >> far beyond colorado's borders, you can feel the economic impact of the marijuana boom. 1,200 miles away in johnstown, ohio, where marijuana is illegal... >> thanks, everybody, for coming out today. my name's andy joseph. >>...pot is making andy joseph a fortune. >> we're here today for the groundbreaking ceremony for our new building. [ applause ] all right! >> joseph has developed state-of-the-art machinery to make hash oil, one of the most potent cannabis products. the navy veteran served on a nuclear sub and came home to get an advance degree at ohio state.
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what are you doing in the marijuana business? >> [ laughs ] i kind of fell into the marijuana business. it found me. the oil is gonna basically collect inside the separation vessel, and ultimately... >> he was moonlighting making equipment to extract botanical oils and noticed an uptick in demand from out west. >> "there's just an exorbitant amount of lavender in california. who's using it all?" >> so you thought these machines were going to people in california who were extracting oil from lavender plants. how did you find out that wasn't the case? >> i was talking to a customer, and i was like, "how do you get the lavender out of the [indistinct]" and they said, "you know it's pot, right?" >> joseph left his day job in 2012 to go all in with his company, apeks supercritical. >> when i decided to focus on apeks full time, we'd done $750,000 that year -- 2012 -- in revenue. 2013, we did $3.2 million. this year, i think we're gonna close out somewhere between $9 million and $10 million. once we get into our new facility, with the additional capability and additional space,
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we should be able to do somewhere between $20 million and $30 million next year. >> you feel like you're riding a rocket ship? >> oh, absolutely. it's been a wild ride, and i think it's gonna continue to be a wild ride. [ chuckling ] and i'm gonna hold on as tight as i can. >> he'd better. the national appetite for marijuana is only growing. 23 states now allow for medicinal marijuana, and 3 others beyond colorado -- washington, oregon, and alaska, plus the district of columbia -- have also voted in recreational pot, a trend that will likely continue. as it does, those places contemplating legal pot would do well to watch what's happening here. i'm harry smith.
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