on this episode of death row stories, a white woman is brutally murdered. >> blood splatter on the wall. >> and a black man is arrested. >> his fingerprint was found. there were a number of hairs on the victim's bed. >> but after a death sentence, a law intern has her doubts. >> there was something wrong. i started seeing what the lies were. >> and the case begins to unravel. >> there are those that have a hidden agenda. >> is it a fair trial? >> corruption is the theme of the day almost. >> there was no way i would let

this case go. >> there's a body in the water. murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence. >> in this case there are a number of things that stink. >> this man is remorseless. >> he need pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. >> get a conviction at all costs. let the truth fall where it may. >> good evening. welcome to carolina. tonight we're coming to you from the city of greenwood, a diverse city and one that has the distinction of having the widest main street in the world. >> greenwood is a very small community. everybody seems to know everybody. we're related to everybody here. it is very tight knit.

so when the news came out about this horrendous murder, it was devastating. >> on a cold monday morning in 1982, the bruised and beaten body of 75-year-old dorothy edwards was discovered in this upscale home. >> dorothy edwards, she was just a loved woman in the community, and she had been horribly killed. >> dorothy was known as a graceful and charming woman with a beautiful singing voice and a wonderful sense of humor. [ sirens ] >> the next door neighbor, mr. holloway had noticed a couple of newspapers that had piled up, and he went over to check on her. >> on january 19th, 1982, inside the home holloway told police he found signs of struggle everywhere, a heavy glass

ashtray shattered on the living room floor, a pair of bloody ice tongs. dorothy edwards was found dead in her closet. >> the brutality of the crime scene, the blood, the way the body was and the stab wounds postmortem, it was just totally unbelievable. >> dorothy's body had 52 wounds, 11 broken ribs and abrasions on her vagina. >> the state forensic team gathered what evidence was inside the home. hair samples were found on the bed. blood in various places. outside there were some fingerprints. >> a crime scene wiped clean of fingerprints, police believe the killer made a mistake, a thumbprint found on the back door.

dorothy's neighbor james holloway told police that edward lee elmore, a 23-year-old handyman worked for dorothy from time to time. although elmore had never been convicted of a felony, police matched his fingerprints from other misdemeanor arrests and issued a warrant to bring him in, accusing him of murder and rape, among lesser charges. greenwood police went looking for elmore 36 hours after dorothy's body was found. >> i was working second shift with the detective dision and the call came in saying the suspect was at his girlfriend mary's apartment. i went up and knocked on the door. >> the encounter was not what detective vandenburgh expected. >> i told them that we had a warrant for his arrest. and i told him it was for murder. his demeanor at that time was so nonchalant. oh, okay. which is totally out of context for anybody i've ever dealt with before in a situation like that. no outburst or violent behavior. just like oh, well. >> police took hair and blood samples and placed them in the

county jailhouse. even elmore's public defender had doubts about his innocence. >> many people will proclaim constantly their innocence and i cannot remember mr. elmore vociferously proclaiming his innocence. and i got the feeling that there might be something for him to hide. >> elmore's case came to trial only 82 days after his arrest. prosecutors say dorothy had been killed saturday night when elmore was alone and had no alibi. >> you want to find out whether or not mr. elmore had any alibis. and we found none. and mr. elmore, he was not very cooperative. he wouldn't hardly talk to me.

>> police found small spots of blood matching dorothy's blood type on elmore's pants and shoes. >> back in the '80s, dna analysis had not been developed. when dna was available, it came back positive that it was the victim's blood. >> prosecutors also told the jury that dozens of elmore's pubic hairs were found on dorothy's bed. and finally, prosecutors presented james gilliam, a prison inmate who claimed to hear elmore confess while he was in jail. >> that came out of nowhere. that just rocked me. mr. rockmore told gilliam that i went down there and robbed that lady, and she started screaming and i killed her. that was the lynchpin. >> the jury took less than five hours to reach a verdict. elmore was convicted and sentenced to death. but the conviction was overturned on appeal. >> there was one juror who was reluctant to impose the death penalty. and the trial judge went into

the jury room and put pressure on the holdout juror to impose the death sentence. >> a new trial was ordered. same prosecutor, same defense attorneys, same outcome. a third trial was held to reconsider the sentence and again, the decision was unanimous. 36 jurors had determined that edward elmore should be put to death. ♪ 11 years later, a 34-year-old law student named diana holt came to the south carolina death penalty resource center as a summer intern. one of her first assignments was reviewing elmore's case. >> the first time i saw the name, i was reading through the transcript. >> diana started having suspicions that elmore's trials weren't fair. she was troubled that there were no expert witnesses and rarely

challenged any of the prosecution's evidence. diana knew that a competent defense was grounds for an appeal. >> i felt like there was something wrong. i needed to meet eddie and give him an eyeball up and down. size him up. >> and who she met wasn't what he expected. >> meeting him, it is just the biggest, sweetest smile, and he is so docile and gentle and quiet and happy. happy. how is he on death row and happy? it just didn't make any sense. there was no way i was going to let elmore's case go.

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♪ lord i've started to walk in the light ♪ >> will you trust god no matter how bad it looks. it's not bad as it seems because god is still in control. >> bishop emmanuel spearman was pastor to edward lee elmore, the man accused of murdering dr. dorothy edwards. >> i have come to know edward in the late '70s. i pastored his home church. and his mother and i were best of friends. they didn't have a whole lot. >> one of 11 siblings, elmore's father was killed by a hit-and-run driver when elmore was 2. he grew up in dire poverty. >> he had a low i.q. i was a special ed teacher so i knew that he was slow. when i went to greenwood jail

and i spoke with him, he really didn't know why he was there. and that bothered me. >> a hard worker, elmore got by on odd jobs like cleaning gutters and washing windows, including for dorothy edwards. when dorothy was murdered, age old fears and recrimination surfaced in the community. >> i know race plays a role when it comes to the justice system. here in greenwood, there are those who still have their agenda, but it's a hidden agenda. >> i'm positive that race played in edward lee elmore's trials. make no mistake, i think that was because he was the black guy that they say killed an older white woman. >> searching through elmore's original trial, diana found potential grounds for appeal. her first target was public defender geddes anderson who seemed utterly unprepared to

take on the case. >> i asked him, when did you start working on the case? eight days before the trail began. that's zero time. you can't even read all of the evidence and assess it and crunch it. >> in retrospect perhaps i should have asked for more time. i never have proclaimed to be the best lawyer that ever graced the courtroom. >> overworked and underpaid, mr. anderson also had a reputation as a drinker. >> that's fair. that's a fair accusation. i have had certain, i guess you could say problems with it but i can say this categorically. i was totally clear headed and not drinking during those trials. everyone of them. but on the other hand, you know, i would go out on occasion. i'm not as bad as i used to be. >> in contrast, william t. jones iii, known as willie t., was

considered a master of the courtroom. >> willie t.'s track record spoke for itself. he lost very few. he was very dramatic. i've seen that man cry in front of the jury. mr. jones in the courtroom could probably outperform sir lawrence olivier. let's put it that way. >> he could overpower you, overcontrol you, and he was not beyond saying things that he couldn't prove if they weren't challenged. >> early in the first trial, anderson challenged jones by objecting that a single thumbprint was not enough to arrest elmore. >> in order to obtain an arrest warrant, the police obtain an upside down thumbprint on the back outside door frame. that's exactly consistent with

cleaning the windows. cleaning the door. that is not probable cause in anywhere else in america that i'm aware of. but willie t. said, oh, well i'm glad you brought that up. the forensic pathologist let us know that she had located negroid pubic hairs on the victim's chest and abdomen. the defense shut their mouths and sat down. >> if elmore's hair had in fact been found on the body, this was a new and explosive claim, a claim that went unchallenged by geddes anderson. >> did you ask to see that evidence? >> you would have to look at the transcript to see. i don't know if i did or not. >> according to the transcript, you did not ask to see that evidence. why would you not have asked to see that evidence? it seems like pretty important. >> well, i don't know how to answer that. i guess you'll have to take some nonanswer to that question. >> mysteriously, the pubic hair willie t. said was found on dorothy's body was never entered into evidence.

as opposed to the hairs on the body, a separate group of 49 pubic hairs said to be found on dorothy's bed also raised diana's doubts. >> a lot of people saw the some 49 pubic hairs allegedly collected from the victim's bed as the most damaging evidence against mr. elmore. but this item of evidence was a plain baggy like put your kids' sandwiches in when you're packing their school lunch. not sealed with red evidence tape that says evidence, do not tamper. this did not have that on there. >> evidence the bag contained 49 hairs. a number diana found suspiciously close to the number of hairs police pulled from elmore after his arrest. >> there was from what i

understand about, 50 to 60 hairs that were collected, either being combed or pulled. >> but if elmore's hair had been found at the crime scene of the nearly 100 crime scene photographs, not a single photo showed hairs on the bed. >> any kind of evidence you collect at a crime scene, the first thing you do is photograph it. >> there was no pictures of the hair on the bed. there was pictures of everything except the most crucial evidence in the case. so it became obvious to me something wasn't quite right. >> the only photo of the bed shows it covered with police camera equipment, contaminating any evidence. the question became, where did the hairs in the baggy come from? >> there was no question they pulled those hairs from his body. they pulled a lot of them. and i don't think they were ever on the bed. i believe it was planted. >> diana was starting to see a pattern. >> there was all this ineffective assistance of counsel. there was no basis for probable cause to arrest mr. elmore anyway, and there was no list of negroid pubic hairs in the police inventory. there was no item like that. >> as diana dug deep entire the case, a new suspect began to emerge. she thought the next door neighbor who discovered

dorothy's body had acted suspiciously. >> really? he put his gloves on before he went to open the door? that grabbed me right away. a new frontier and a different discipline. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can be inspired by great food once again. chase sapphire preferred. so you can.

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because for a long time, edward didn't say anything or testify. he just sat there as if, why am i here? why i am a going through this? >> you want this court to believe you're always this quiet, don't you? >> well, sir, you asked me something, i answered. >> you want them to believe you're real quiet and polite. yes, sir, no, sir. isn't that right? >> no, sir. >> edward didn't understand what he was talking about. he didn't understand how to defend himself or what to say. >> why did you hit her with this ashtray? >> i didn't hit her with it. >> why did you stick her with this knife? >> i didn't stick her with no knife, sir. >> tell us how it felt when she reached down and jerked these pubic hairs out of you. it hurt, didn't it? >> she didn't jerk them off me. i was not there. >> she tried to get off the bed and get out of there. >> i was not there.

>> and you caught her and started pounding her with your fist. >> no, sir. >> stomach and all. >> no, sir. >> did you kick her? >> no, sir. i wasn't there. >> that's all i have to ask you. >> in his closing argument to the jury, willie t. portrayed elmore as a sadistic killer who tortured his victim before beating her to death. but diana thought that the depiction of elmore was highly prejudicial and the evidence riddled with holes. she also thought elmore had done well under the circumstances. >> even under withering prosecution by brilliant willie t., mr. elmore said what he always said, i didn't do it. >> in order to solve the mystery of who did murder dorothy edwards, diana began looking for alternate suspects and she found one in the neighbor who discovered the body, james holloway. >> i read the testimony of james holloway and my head just about spun off my little spindly neck. wow! >> holloway had spent an unusually long period of time at the crime scene before calling the police. >> he goes inside dorothy edwards' house.

he sees that wall of blood for the first time, but he doesn't call police. he decides that he is going to go to the other side neighbor and get her to come in the house with him. so he is at the closet door again and he decides to put gloves on. and then opens the door and lo and behold, there she was. really? he put his gloves on before he went to open the door? >> diana was also suspicious that holloway immediately told police who the perpetrator could be. >> he told law enforcement, you know, there was a boy here a couple weeks back who washed her windows. and if you get me her checkbook, i can get his name for you. and that was edward lee elmore. that boy. >> even more surprising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the

crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. >> diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway's front door. >> mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted me. that was one of the toughest moments in my career of not reacting. holy -- he also told me that law enforcement suspected him because all of the neighbors had

told law enforcement that he and dorothy had been having an affair for the last 30 years. he told me that dorothy was supposed to go out of town that weekend because she claim this guy in tryon, north carolina was going to propose to her that weekend. but somehow she did not get to go on that trip to north carolina that weekend. >> diana realized if holloway was having an affair with dorothy, the motive could be jealous. and holloway's detailed description of what might have happened also raised a red flag for diana. >> he then starts telling me the story of what happened in her house, as though he were an eyewitness. she was just sitting there on her settee watching tv. he came in and he started on her. it took her a good 20 minutes to die.

he just went on. and you didn't -- and there wasn't any nudging or prompting. he was relishing talking about all of the things. it was a gully washer of dumbfoundedness that day. >> diana's suspicions about james holloway were never pursued. he passed away in 1994. >> by 1995, elmore had been on death row for more than 13 years. and he had seen many of his fellow inmates put to death. elmore's survival would now depend on diana getting him a new trial. she would start 98 days after passing her bar exam.

by 1995, diana was ready to present evidence pointing to edward elmore's innocence to a state court in south carolina. the goal was to get a new trial for elmore. diana would be joined by chris jensen for what would be her first hearing as a lawyer. >> she was very fierce. she had not the slightest doubt about eddie elmore's innocence. she was determined to make sure that i did my job. >> the state was represented by donald zelenka, who reportedly

once argued that women who had abortions in the third trimester could be executed for murder. and elmore's fate would be decided by judge ernest kinard. one of the first witnesses called was james gilliam, the inmate who said elmore confessed to him in jail. but in the small town of greenwood, both elmore and gilliam new bishop spearman. and before the hearing, gilliam told spearman the truth. >> james gilliam and i go back i guess all our life. one night he called me and he told me i lied and my conscience is bothering me. >> gilliam said he made a deal with the prosecutor to testify against elmore in exchange for release from prison. but with elmore facing the electric chair, he felt bad what he had done. >> i said james, make it right. and i got excited.

i felt like once this comes out that ed would be free. >> gilliam said the testimony that i gave in these prior trials was false. that he made up this story to try to get better treatment for himself on his criminal sentence. >> gilliam would go on to state that the only thing elmore had ever said was that he didn't kill dorothy edwards. but diana's team also felt they needed to refute dorothy edwards' time of death which the medical examiner had placed on saturday night during the only hours elmore had no alibi. diana hired forensic expert jonathan arden. >> in my opinion the victim died in the early afternoon on sunday. that time frame makes sense with the rigor mortis, the lack of decomposition. but when the state medical examiner was asked, why did you recommend the time of death be 65 hours prior to the time of discovery, given all the evidence of the rigor mortis,

the lack of decomposition, she said under oath, because that's when they told me. the police told me that's when they thought it happened. >> but even with all the evidence in elmore's favor, diana and jensen knew the biggest hurdle would be explaining the blood on elmore's pants to the court. >> blood that was supposedly found on pants and shoes matched the blood type of mrs. edwards. and this was very difficult testimony to rebut. >> as jensen cross-examined the state's blood evidence, diana went through the testimony and made a key discovery. evidence lists showed elmore's pants had passed through eight different people before the trial. >> i jumped out of my chair. i start whispering to chris jensen, ask him what this means and who these people are and what that is supposed to represent. >> one name on the list jumped out at diana. thomas henderson was a state police agent who grew up across the street from dorothy edwards and james holloway and was friendly with both. >> tom henderson had nothing to do with forensic investigation

at all. nothing. he wasn't supposed to be involved in the case anyway because these were people he knew his whole life long. >> there was really no reason for him to have removed these things from the laboratory. we were arguing that this evidence had in all likelihood been tampered with and quite conceivably that mrs. edwards' blood had been put on the garments. >> it would now be up to the judge to rule whether or not elmore deserved a new trial. the decision would take four months to come down. >> we presented all this great evidence. we're very excited. we're stoked. then comes the judge's order and

the cover letter said edward lee elmore may well not be guilty, but that will be for an appellate court to find. >> judge kinard had left elmore's fate up to other judges to decide. >> i became literally hysterical, completely sobbing. running, i threw it at john blume. what the hell is the matter with you? >> john blume had assigned elmore's case to diana as an intern. >> i was stunned. i had really expected that he would grant relief because they had presented a compelling case of mr. elmore's innocence. >> diana was discovering that proving mr. elmore's innocence was not enough. to get a new trial, elmore's team would have to prove that elmore's constitutional rights had been violated. >> a person can be innocent but as long as they get a fair trial, that's all they're entitled to. well, that begs the question. is it a fair trial if somebody has lied? >> diana's team immediately appealed judge kinard's decision

to the south carolina supreme court. but in the meantime, the state prosecutor, donald zelenka had discovered that diana had a secret that if exposed could destroy her career and damage elmore's case. he would soon call her to a deposition. >> donald zelenka asked have you ever done anything in the course of your life that would reflect poorly on the legal profession? and i said yes.

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while edward lee elmore sat on death row, waiting for his appeal to move forward, diana holt took on other death penalty cases. in one she was able to get a last-minute stay of execution over the objections of assistant attorney general donald zelenka. zelenka was determined to discredit diana. he dug through her past looking for anything to get her off the case. in april 2000, he called her to a deposition. >> it was at the attorney general's office. there were six attorneys across the table from me and all of them lined up like this. looking. don zelenka asked have you ever done anything in the course of

your life that would reflect poorly on the legal profession? and i said yes. >> diana feared that if her story became public, it would ruin her reputation and destroy elmore's chances for a new trial. in 1975 at the age of 17, diana ran away to new orleans with a few friends. >> it was a horrible time. my sister had been taken away by the state of texas. it had to do with sexual abuse that i suffered. i was 17. i didn't know how to deal with stuff like that. so i left. i met these three people. went to new orleans with them and after a little bit, i wanted to go home. i didn't have any money and there was a plan. so i went to the french quarter, started talking to this guy. and the ruse was that i would

exchange sex for money. we left bourbon street together, got in his car and one of the two guys came in. he got on the passenger side. i was scrunched in the middle. >> diana's friend pulled a gun and demanded money. the driver gave them $60. they jumped out of the car and ran. >> made it about three blocks. pulled over by the new orleans police department, up against the wall. the victim was a u.s. marshal. it's like dumb and dumber a little bit. what do you expect from an air head 17-year-old. i pled guilty to armed robbery and off i went to the louisiana correctional institute for women. one day, the prosecutor in my case came to the prison to visit and he said, i just want you to know that you don't have to be what you did that day, and you

can make it, and you can be somebody. and i'm still -- why wouldn't every prosecutor want to do that? >> diana began studying in the prison's law library, researching cases of fellow inmates and sending letters to the presiding judges. she even had one woman's sentence reduced. >> doing the few things that did that made an impact, i want more of that. i want to do more of that. i want to help people like that. >> a model prisoner, diana was released in 1977 with a full pardon. the whole episode became a distant memory until donald

zelenka confronted her with it nearly 25 years later. >> i was like, you know what? you opened the door. i'm walking through it. let's do this. i'm going to tell it all. not just the part you want to hear. >> but the judge in the case, visibly disgusted by zelenka's tactic, disallowed the deposition. diana could continue her fight for elmore's life. at elmore's trial, prosecutor willie t. had claimed that negroid hair had been found on the body. when the petition had asked to see the hair it had gone missing. now 16 years later, the hair suddenly turned up. >> the prosecution has an obligation to turn over to the defense anything which is favorable. in this case, they didn't do it at the time of trial. >> as it turns out, none of the hairs were negroid at all. they were all caucasian hair, and they did not belong to mr. elmore. >> and that should be sufficient

to warrant a new trial. >> we got all excited. asked for the judge to set a hearing. it was december 20th or 21st. we were going to have christmas beyond all christmases. >> on december 21st, 2000, a new hearing was held. if a new trial were to be granted, elmore could be released on bail and join his family for the holidays after more than 18 years on death row. >> all rise. >> judge ernest kinard again presided, the same judge who hat stated that elmore may well not be guilty. >> lab corps has sent us a report indicating there are hairs from someone other than dorothy edwards and there were no hairs of anyone of

african-american descent. >> he acknowledged the evidence should have been given to the defense but argued only one of the hairs had sufficient dna to read. >> we do not dispute the materials recovered from the victim's body at the time of the autopsy. one hair, not hairs. one hair. >> it was merely another hair in the bedroom. of mrs. edwards. this is a completely different case than what the jury heard. in the final analysis, the question really is if not now, when? if this is not enough to grant somebody a new trial, then when is post conviction relief ever appropriate? >> unexpectedly, rather than

adjourn and read the filings before ruling, the judge issued his decision on the spot. >> all motions are denied. >> the judge said, one hair is not enough. i'm out of here. >> in this case, there are a number of things that stink and if you look at it as a whole, it doesn't just stink, it reeks. >> an execution date was set for elmore. he was placed in a high security lockdown cell while awaiting his date with the electric chair. now a mere three weeks away. >> i tried my hardest to get him ready for it. and he called me one day and he said, are they going to kill me? i think i told him in the most simple terms i could tell him that they were going to have to take me out first. makes you realize how old time is and how short life is. she can take all the time she wants. princess cruises. come back new. [ female announcer ] plan your seven-day cruise from just $549. call your travel agent or 1-800-princess.

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after 22 years on death row, edward elmore was in lockdown, a special holding cell for inmates awaiting execution. with only 23 days to go, diana filed a last-minute appeal and got a stay of execution. but this was only a temporary solution. if elmore was to survive, they would need a new strategy. >> the supreme court issued a landmark death penalty decision. >> and a supreme court decision from 2002 gave them an opportunity. >> in a stunning reversal of course, the u.s. supreme court ruled executing mentally disabled criminals is

unconstitutional. >> the question was whether elmore was in fact mentally disabled. >> he was tested. and the state department of special needs finds that edward lee elmore is mentally retarded. >> elmore's death sentence was commuted to life in prison. after nearly 28 years, elmore was finally leaving death row. [ screaming ] sorry, that's exactly what i did. i get mr. elmore on the phone. i say hey, you're going to be leaving death row. i'm not going to die? no, well, not there. >> elmore's life had been spared. but diana hadn't fought for years to see elmore die behind bars. her team had one last hope to get him a new trial. the u.s. 4th circuit court of appeals would be the highest

court ever to hear elmore's case. >> the 4th circuit has the reputation of being the most conservative federal appellate court in the country. so we felt our chances of prevailing were very slight. >> in yet another face-off with donald zelenka, the court's circuit three-judge panel heard oral arguments in september of 2010, and remarkably, they came down hard on zelenka. >> the time of death, we were locking it down because the defendant was seen at 9:30 headed that direction. >> locking down the time of death based on what his alibi was. i thought you locked down time of death by science. >> the judges have moral righteous indignation in their voices and what they're saying. >> you put in evidence there was hairs found on the bed there was a big part of the conviction? >> yes, it was.

>> not one photograph was taken where the hairs were supposed to be. does that make sense to you? >> well, i don't know. >> do you think that makes a difference now that we know he is mentally retarded? >> no, not at all. >> in this case, this is just a constellation of problems. >> even though the judges seem to be raising some serious questions, i came out of the argument feeling negative about our prospects. i didn't think the court had much incentive to overturn his conviction. >> we didn't hear anything for month after month. 14 months went by. and then i get an e-mail in my inbox. heart stops. i start hyperventilating. i clicked on it, and the opinion is 190-something pages long. and where is the good part? >> the most conservative appellate court in the nation had ruled 2-1 that elmore deserved a new trial. >> everyone in the death penalty community, what happened? we don't win like that, and not there. but we did. >> the state was reluctant to retry the case, knowing the evidence the defense had unearthed could implicate both police and prosecutors. so they offered elmore a plea bargain. >> and the prosecutor asked is there anything short of outright dismissal of all charges that we

can do to settle this matter? and i said in fact there is. he goes free at the bond hearing, and he is going to continue to say the truth he said all of these years, i'm innocent. and the prosecutor said okay. >> but the plea required that elmore say in open court that the state could likely prove their charges against him at a trial. it wasn't the exoneration they were hoping for, but it would mean freedom. >> new tonight, he was once on death row. now he is a free man. after 30 years, edward elmore was released from prison today. >> oh, thank the lord. give me a minute. i'm a little overwhelmed right now. just so excited, i couldn't hardly speak. locked up all them years something i didn't do, and comes along, she believed in me.

>> were you afraid of dying? >> not in a way, but like i say, i knew the truth would eventually come out, right. that's kept me going. it kept my faith right, and just taking it one day at a time. that's all you can do, you know, and hope and pray that everything come out all right. >> mr. elmore had been incarcerated for 11,000 days. the judge told mr. elmore that he had exhausted his sentence and he was free to go. you are free to go, mr. elmore. >> we could walk him out that door of the courtroom and down those steps as a free man. and that was -- i'm sorry. that was the best moment of my life as an attorney.

>> elmore moved back in with his sister, and has begun the process of adjusting to a world very different from the one he left. >> so much had changed, you know, since -- trying to get used to everything. still trying to adjust to things. it's so technical, right, phones and computers and all that stuff. it's really, really hard. i'm trying to learn how, you know. i'm trying to cope with it. >> eddie's case taught me a lot of things about our justice system. it taught me to be distrustful, skeptical. geography can make the difference. money, of course. gender, of course. race is the one that is just a dagger to the heart. but it also taught me to never give up on it. that even 30 years later, someone will listen. as long as you don't give up, justice is possible.

♪ people are lighting up all over the country. they call it the green rush. marijuana has moved out of the back alleys and into the open. >> happy cannabis, y'all. >> in some states it's legal to grow, to sell, to smoke. and marijuana could be legalized in a city near you. so es to get, and many think so harmless. when the smoke clears, can marijuana bad for you? or could pot actually be good for you? >> marijuana is better than all those pills for you in terms of treating?

>> yeah. >> i travel the world for answers. what does marijuana do to you? what does it do to your kids? a special investigation, "weed." our journey begins here in this small townhome, nestled in the mountains with a family who has never aloud tv cameras in before, and you're going to soon learn why. >> this is so pretty out here. >> yeah. >> they live in colorado, one of two states where it's legal to smoke pot medically and recreationally. but here it's also taboo to residents like paige and her husband matt. >> i'm sure it was mentioned to us by someone. hey, you should try this. and i thought no way. >> you thought that's fringe stuff? >> no way, not in a million years, no. >> but in this area, marijuana is far from fringe. >> and do you want island sweet skunk? >> medical dispensaries are everywhere. people are smoking in private clubs.

and public festivals. but none of this is for matt. he is a military man, and marijuana would be a career-ender. >> i grew up in wisconsin in a well loving family, and i was educated that that's a drug. you don't do that. and i never did. >> but just decades ago, marijuana was a legitimate medication. also called cannabis, prescribed by doctors and dispensed by pharmacies. >> rolling. >> this is harry -- >> but that all changed in 1930. >> a relentless warfare. >> henry anslinger. the united states first drug czar. for him, public enemy number one, you guessed it, marijuana. this guy saw how he could increase the budget of his department by having this mission, going after marijuana. >> you know, saying there is this drug that the mexican migrant workers are smoking, and it's loco weed and it's going to make them crazy and they're going to rape your women. >> he got the anti-marijuana message out through news report,

and then came this. >> convinced that he is hopelessly and incurably insane. >> the film "reefer madness," portraying the users of marijuana as unproductive, crazed. >> people are still afraid of what pot can do to them. >> in many ways to have defined our attitudes for 70 years. >> yeah. >> marijuana then became illegal in 1937. and by 1970, it was schedule 1 controlled substance. the government was saying it had no medicinal value, and had a high potential for abuse. all reasons why the figges stayed away from marijuana, until this. and this might be hard for some of you to watch. >> it's okay, baby. >> this is their daughter charlotte having a seizure.

>> we just thought it was just one random febrile seizure. >> a fluke. >> a fluke made sense. after all charlotte, nicknamed charlie, was born perfectly healthy, a fraternal twin to sister chase. >> charlie always had big, big smiles. just happy kids. >> easy. >> easy. very much so. >> so it was around three months you said that when you first noticed that charlie had a seizure. >> i was chaining her diaper, well putting a new diaper on from after the bath, and her eyes just started flickering. >> it led to the first of many trips to the er. >> they did the million dollar workup, mri, eeg, spine tap, they did the workup and found nothing and sent us home. >> no abnormal blood test or scan. >> and developing normally too, talking, walking, the same day as her twin. nothing was behind yet. >> by the time she was 2, though, the seizures had become

constant, and started to take their toll on their once happy, joyful little girl. >> she started to really decline, cognitively. and she was slipping away. and she just wasn't keeping up with her twin. >> they finally found an answer, and it was awful news. gervais syndrome. it is severe intractable epilepsy. the seizures start during the first year of life and are unstoppable, difficult to control, and very damaging. >> severe behavioral problems. attention deficit and hyperactivity. the self injury, banging her head on the floor and pulling her hair out. like a possessed child. this isn't your happy charlotte. >> it was a race against time. many gervais kids die young, in early childhood. charlotte was almost 3. for the next two years, the figges tried everything. strange diets, acupuncture, and dozens of powerful drugs like valium, ativan, phenobarbital, but nothing seemed to help.

even worse, some of the medications nearly killed her. >> after one dose, she stops breathing. and after two doses, her heart will stop. >> did you have to do cpr on her yourself? >> yes. i remember when her heart stopped and i had her pulse and i lost her pulse. there was nothing. the ambulance is on its way. >> she survived. >> you're okay. mommy is here. >> but that was fall of 2011. and charlotte was 5 years old. >> when things were at their worst, she just seizes all night. and the kids are sleeping in my room or next door. they can hear the seizure scream all night, 50 times a night. and chase would come in the morning and just misses her twin. and just hug her and rub her head and say i'm so glad you survived through the night last night. >> matt had been deployed to afghanistan. and the only thing he could do to help was start scouring the internet. and he stumbled onto this video

of a child using marijuana. >> so how is everything going? >> jamie had four days without a seizure. >> i was like wow, this having success on specifically gervais, this is interesting. it's natural. >> and while he couldn't ever imagine taking marijuana himself, he was now in the stunning position of recommending it for charlotte. >> i was like we need to do this. >> and i said i don't know. >> there you are. >> and then charlotte's condition got worse. 300 seizures a week. almost two every hour. she was not talking or moving. basically, catatonic. as a last resort, doctors wanted to either prescribe a powerful veterinary drug used on epileptic dogs, or put charlotte in a medically induced coma so her brain and body could rest. for paige, those were not good options. but maybe, just maybe marijuana now was. but she was about to find out

how hard that would be. >> this doesn't go to the pharmacy and pick up your medicine. there was no protocol. >> when we come back, what will the figges do? and what would you do if this were your daughter? [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day women's 50+. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. i'm bethand i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love.

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is she allergic? >> i had resigned myself. i don't think she's going to survive this. >> we've seen her flatline in a hospital. we've said good-bye. >> you're listening to matt and paige figge describe their own daughter. what would you do if this were your child? charlotte figge had an extreme form of epilepsy. her body was so frail that any seizure could kill her. with no traditional treatment left to try and the clock

ticking away, her parents decided to try marijuana. charlotte was just 5 years old. >> i need a card to be able to get the cannabis from a pharmacy. doctors have to prescribe it. >> you need two doctors in colorado to get the card for a juvenile or a child. it was hard. we were the first young child, and they said no. everyone said no, no, no, no. >> certainly her age played a role in my hesitance. >> dr. alan shackelford is a harvard-trained physician. he is also among a handful of doctors in colorado who give prescriptions for medical marijuana. from the moment charlotte entered his office, he knew she was in trouble. while he was just examining her, she had two seizures. >> she had failed everything. there were no more options for her. everything had been tried, except cannabis. >> here's how scientists think it might work. marijuana is made up of two ingredients, thc -- that's the psychoactive part that makes you high, and cbd, also called

cannabidiol. they think it regulates electric activity to help quiet the activityn the brain that causes the seizures. >> dr. julie holland is the editor of the pot book, a complete guide to cannabis. >> for a long time the work on cannabis and epilepsy was sort of inconclusive. maybe it works. maybe it doesn't. they couldn't quite figure it out. it's only when they really started separating thc from cbd that they saw definitively, yes, cbd seems to really stop seizures. >> so the figges needed to find something that was rare, a strain of marijuana that was low in thc. of course, they didn't want charlotte getting stoned. but also high in cbd to treat her seizures. and that wouldn't be easy. dispensaries and growers, they make their money off strains that are high in thc. >> i'm joel. >> i'm josh. >> no one knows that better than the stanley brothers.

their family business is pot. and if you look at these clean-cut guys and what you see surprises you, don't worry. they've heard it all before. >> when we were round the corner, oh, wait a second. you know, did you finish high school? >> they all not only finished high school, but also college and in some cases graduate school. now they are some of colorado's biggest growers and dispensary owners. they produce up to 600 pounds of medical marijuana a year, and much of that marijuana is high in thc. but here on their remote farm at this undisclosed location in the mountains -- >> it takes a lot of plants. we're allowed to grow six per patient. >> they have been growing something different. something they call revolutionary. >> it's greenhouse one. >> greenhouse one, yes. welcome to it. welcome to paradise. >> behind closed doors and under tight security we enter what the stanleys call the garden of eden.

>> there's nothing like this in the world. >> this plant is 21% cbd and less than 1% thc. >> it took years of crossbreeding plants to get to this point. >> instead of breeding up the thc we've bred down the thc and bred up the cbd, and people said, you're crazy. you know, who is going to smoke that? >> so why grow it then? well, the stanleys also believed in cbd's potential to treat many diseases. and they had seen it change lives before. >> meet 19-year-old chaz moore. he uses many different strains of marijuana. many of them high in cbd to treat his rare disorder of the diaphragm. >> my abs lock up. >> that's why he is talking this way, almost speaking in hiccups, like he can't catch his breath. it's called myoclonus diaphragmatic flutter. >> it becomes painful. pretty quickly i imagine.

>> yeah. >> after, like, 15, 20 minutes this is where i can start to really feel. >> he is about to show me how the marijuana works. he has been convulsing now for seven minutes. >> how quickly do you expect this to work? >> within like the first five minutes. and i'm done. like -- >> that's it? >> that's it. >> it was actually less than a minute. >> depending on the attack and the day, like, it will work within the first couple of hits. >> hear how his voice is completely different. that attack lasted eight minutes, but some have last much longer and happen as often as 40 times a day. and like charlotte, he had tried so many things before. by 16 chaz was taking these powerful, addictive, potentially deadly narcotics and muscle relaxants daily, like valium and morphine.

>> it would be safe to say that marijuana, what you have in your hand there, is better than all those pills for you in terms of treating? >> yeah. i'm not zombified. i've had 16, 17 attacks today, and i'm still sitting up talking to you. my first attack on all these, i would be in the hospital. >> i'm a firm believer that marijuana has actually saved my son's life. >> chaz's father, sean. >> his quality of life now is 1,000 times better than what it was when he was on the pharmaceuticals. >> a quality of life that paige figge desperately wanted for her daughter charlotte. but she still had one hurdle to cross, convincing dispensary owners like the stanleys to sell marijuana to a 5-year-old little girl. >> when charlotte's mother called my brother, joel, the brothers had a meeting and said tell us about this patient. she's 5 years old he said, and we said, no, we can't do that. >> why? it was the fear of the unknown.

charlotte was one of the youngest patients at the time wanting marijuana. would it be too much for her? or would it change her life forever? we'll find that out later, but, first, learn more about what marijuana does to your kids' brain and yours as well. i reckon a storm's a bruin'. reckon so. reckon you gotta hotel? i reckon, no. reckon priceline express deals can get you a great deal. wherever you...mosey. you reckon? we reckon. vámonos! priceline express deals.

that's what i want to talk about. if you're speaking some weed, make some noise! >> april 20th, denver, colorado. >> we like weed, smoke weed! >> tens of thousands from around the country and the world lighting up legally.

>> happy cannabis, y'all. >> for some it's a lifestyle. for others it's a lifeline. >> we're working with the lupus foundation and rheumatoid arthritis. >> for all of them, i wonder what was it doing to their brains? >> some of my patients call me pot doc. >> your patients call you pot doc? >> well, they never meet anyone who is as interested as hearing about their marijuana use as i am. >> dr. stacy gruber is serious about pot. >> i want you to name the color and not to read it. >> okay. >> i met her in her labs in mclean hospital near boston. she's using high-tech imaging to see what happens in the brain when you smoke. >> when you first smoke, that you light up a spliff, a joint, a smoke, and receptors are throughout the brain respond, and these are areas of the brain responsible for things like pleasure, memory, learning, sensation, sense of time and space, coordination, movement, appetite and other drives shall we say. so it's sort of an overall

impact, right? >> so reward, pleasure, hunger. you have this overall feeling of wellbeing they say. that all sounds pretty good. >> it does sound pretty good. >> and it's not just feeling good, but there is this phenomenon reported by many smokers over the years, especially famous artists, the ability to be more creative. >> when you feel that high, there's sort of a release of dopamine, and your brain has the ability now to perceive things slightly differently from the way you might have if you hadn't been smoking pot. what you really see is this reduction in inhibitory function. >> welcome, doctor. >> pretty spectacular. >> less inhibition. that's something that painter amir says helps him be more creative. >> a successful artist. his canvases sell for up to $25,000.

>> it's my favorite way to work. >> using marijuana? >> yeah. >> he has been painting for 14 years, smoking for even longer. he says it makes him feel more relaxed, but most importantly for him, he says it makes him less critical of his own work. >> stop worrying so much about this and that and just sort of looking and being as present as possible. >> amir does caution that it's a delicate balance for him. >> it would make me apprehensive, maybe a little paranoid. just too analytical. >> you can get paranoid and have disorganized thinking. you get disoriented. it can be uncomfortable. it can lead to panic attacks or anxiety attacks in people. >> how do you know when you've done too much? >> simple tasks become very frustrating, like mixing paint, and then just sort of get into this state of, you know --

>> and why that happens is exactly what columbia university neuroscientist carl hart is investigating. >> exhale. >> research subjects in his lab smoke marijuana and then take a variety of cognitive tests. >> the effects will be disruption in memory, disruptions in inhibitory control. they will become slower at cognitive functioning, a wide range of things. these effects are temporary, but they're pretty pronounced, and they are clear. >> and it's slowly becoming clear to scientists what part of the brain is most affected. it's the prefrontal cortex. >> it's very important for planning, thinking, coordinating your behaviors. there are tons of marijuana receptors in this region, and we think that marijuana, particularly in the novice, can disrupt all of those behaviors.

>> an impairment that hart cautions could be dangerous. especially when driving. >> you may prematurely hit your brakes. you may prematurely hit the gas pedal. a wide range of things. you may make a turn without looking more carefully. >> look at this experiment done by cnn affiliate kiro in washington state. subjects smoke marijuana and then drove. one was a daily medical marijuana smoker and another an infrequent weekend smoker. >> relaxed and buzzed. >> the more the novice user smoked, the more trouble behind the wheel. >> watch yourself. watch yourself. >> but interestingly, the habitual smoker didn't have as much trouble. >> i wouldn't pull her off the road, no. not yet. >> and that's something i witnessed firsthand driving around with 19-year-old chaz moore. the day that i spent with him, he had been smoking all day long. >> do you feel impaired at all? >> no, i don't. i feel normal.

>> turns out when you test people who have a lot of experience with cannabis, you don't see many disruptions, but if you test people who have sort of limited history with cannabis, you can see some clear pronounced disruptions. >> of course, no one thinks that driving when using marijuana is a good idea, but what scientists can't answer is if there is a safe legal limit and people who use marijuana daily as a medicine should be able to drive. how impaired are they? >> what is more clear, though, the effect of marijuana on the young brain. >> what we see is a very big difference in people who begin to smoke prior to the age of 16 and those who smoke after age 16. what we call early versus later onset. >> gruber's brain scans show the white matter, those are the highways that help the brain communicate from one point to another are impaired in those who start smoking early. >> maybe that there's underlying white matter connectivity differences. >> that's your concern, it sounds like, that those

highways, those white matter highways are just more disrupted in people who start smoking early. >> that's what we see. >> perhaps not surprising given what we know about the young developing brain. >> that's a very delicate time in brain development, and that's not a good time to be taking any drugs. >> preliminary research shows that early onset smokers are slower at tasks, have lower iq's later in life, higher risk of strokes, and increased incidents of psychotic disorders. while these studies are not conclusive, some scientists are still concerned because in 2012 35% of high school seniors lit up, and that could mean a generation of kids with damaged brains. many fear something else. >> i never really told myself i needed help. >> a generation of marijuana addicts. when we come back, the truth and the science behind what's being called a growing epidemic. and, later, charlotte's story. one of the youngest children to

try marijuana in colorado. [ male announcer ] this is kevin.

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this was the day chaz moore almost died. pumped full of drugs like morphine, valium to quiet a nonstop 48-hour attack. >> they thought i was going to overdose, and, yeah, it was pretty bad. >> at his bedside his father, sean, watched his son go from being catatonic to what he calls high as a kite.

>> how high are you on the morphine? >> i'm not high on -- >> i watched friends of mine die from taking the same drugs that he took. >> you see, sean was a drug addict, and he had struggled for decades to get clean. >> it was scary. it was important for him not to take these drugs if he could avoid it. >> if he could avoid them. i know how addictive they are. i've seen it. it scared the hell out of me. >> but sean is not scared of marijuana and neither is chaz. >> this right here, i don't get sick off of it. i can't overdose. >> and chaz is right about that. while there are fatal accidental prescription medicine overdoses, every 19 minutes in this country, there are virtually no reports of fatal marijuana overdoses. and it's perhaps one of the biggest reasons most people think pot is safe. in fact, a new study of children showed that by high school only one in five think marijuana is harmful.

that's the lowest number in more than two decades, and it's something we heard over and over as we travelled around the country. >> not really that harmful. >> it has a lot of benefits. not really too concerned about it. >> i think it's safe if you're a safe person. >> but the experts we spoke to said there is more to the story. >> there are people who compulsively smoke, who want to stop smoking, but they can't stop smoking. >> in fact, 9% of marijuana users will become dependent. now, that's not as high as other drugs, like heroin. 23% of users become addicted. 17% with cocaine. 15% with alcohol. it's still approximately one out of every 11 marijuana smokers. >> there's no longer any scientific debate that marijuana's not just psychologically addictive, but also physically addictive. >> so give me an update. how are you doing?

>> dr. christian runs one of colorado's largest youth substance abuse clinics. the number of marijuana addicts he treats has tripled in the last three years alone. >> literally i cried about it. marijuana is number one on their list of priorities. they have dropped out of life. >> back in the day i would have not felt like my day has really started unless i got high. >> joel vargas started smoking when he was just 13. by 15 he was smoking more than a dozen times a day. he stopped skateboarding. he even dropped out of school. >> i like getting high. i need to get high because my brain is telling me. >> adolescents starting about age 13 have a pretty mature brain reward center. so they can experience rewards and pleasures the same way adults can, but the problem with that is that their prefrontal cortex, which helps people think ahead, control their impulses, that's not fully developed until age 24.

that explains why adolescents are much more vulnerable. >> there's something else that addiction experts believe is likely happening in the brain. when you smoke pot, the feel-good chemicals that make up marijuana called cannabinoids, remember them? they cause your brain to stop producing its own natural cannabinoids. when you stop smoking, you have no feel good cannabinoids of your own. until your body kick starts production, you feel lousy, so many people smoke again to feel better. and today's marijuana could be more addictive. it has more of the psychoactive ingredient thc than ever before. brain researcher dr. nora volkow. >> if you smoke a very potent marijuana, then the thc content is going to go very fast into your brain at relatively high concentrations, and then that increases its rewarding effects and likelihood of transitioning

into addiction. >> how much stronger is it? >> you see the barbed wire, obviously, on the fences. >> well, i traveled to mississippi where marijuana is illegal, but here on the campus of one of the country's oldest universities, ole miss, a huge stash of marijuana is under lock and key. >> this is our vault. >> this is some pretty tight security. look at this door. >> mahmoud runs what's called a marijuana potency project. what's the potency of this? >> this is about 8%. >> for three decades now his team has analyzed weed confiscated from drug busts. >> this is 36% thc. you can smell it. it has a good aromatic smell. >> how much is this worry you, 36% thc confiscated? >> very dangerous material. for someone that is not experienced in marijuana smoking takes some of this, and they're going to go into the negative effects of the high, the

psychosis, the irritation, irritability, paranoia, all of this. >> while not all the plants are this high, there's no question he has seen a trend. in 1972 the average potency was less than 1% thc. now it's nearly 13%. >> are people becoming more obsessed with high thc marijuana? >> i think so. they're starting out with a half a percent and 1%, and they get a good high, and then as they continue to use that, it doesn't give them the same high anymore, so they seek either smoking more or higher potency material. >> it happened to joel vargas. after a couple of years of smoking daily, joel eventually ended up in rehab where he faced mild withdrawal symptoms like irritability, insomnia, nausea. >> certainly it isn't anything nearly as dangerous as abrupt discontinuation of alcohol. you know, for somebody like

joel, going rehab is really about learning new behaviors more than it is about sort of treating the physiological dependence or tolerance or withdrawal issues. >> joel has been clean now for six months, but these kinds of risks, they don't scare off charlotte's parents. >> people ask us that a lot. like, how do you make that decision? it wasn't a decision. it was the next viable option. >> and some would say a radical option, marijuana for a 5-year-old. but it was an option they hoped would change her life forever. >> baby. >> when we come back, matt and paige figge finally give their charlotte marijuana. the results are shocking. over 20 million kids everyday in our country lack access to healthy food.

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it was january 2012, afghanistan, about 7,000 miles away from his family in colorado, matt figge received this video from his wife paige. >> it's horrible seeing these videos when i'm deployed. >> it was his 5-year-old daughter, charlotte, seizing. diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy, she was having 300 seizures a week. each attack so severe it had the potential to kill her. they had already tried dozens of high-powered drugs. >> we needed to try something else, and at that point in time marijuana was that natural course of action to try.

>> at home in colorado paige searched for marijuana high in cbd. that's the ingredient some scientists think helps seizures and also low in thc. remember, she didn't want to get her daughter stoned. she found a small amount in a denver dispensary. the owner was surprised that anyone would even want it. >> they said it's funny because no one buys this. that was the general consensus, no one wanted it. it didn't have any effect. >> paige paid $800 for a small bag and took it home. >> i had a friend that was starting a business making medicine, and i said can you help me extract the medicine from the bag of marijuana? i measured it with a syringe and squirted it under her tongue. it was exciting and very nerve-racking. >> holding charlotte in her arms, paige waited. an hour ticked by. then another. then another. >> she didn't have seizures that day. then she didn't have a seizure

that night. >> did you sit there and look at your watch? >> right. i thought this is crazy. and then she didn't have one the next day. and the next day. i thought that is -- she would have had 100 by now. i just -- i know. i just thought this is insane. >> i remember how happy paige was. it's really working. i can't believe it. yeah, that was pretty amazing to hear. >> it had worked. but in just a couple of weeks the excitement was overshadowed by panic. paige was running out of marijuana and the dispensary didn't have any more of that particular strain. even if there was more, the monthly price tag would have been astronomical. $2,000, and not a penny of it covered by insurance. but then paige heard about the stanleys, the six brothers and their greenhouse of marijuana that is high in cbd. >> i said, oh, my goodness. he says i don't know what to do with it. we're trying new things with it, but no one wants it. it's not sellable. i said just don't touch that

because we need that plant. >> at first they didn't want to take the risk of giving marijuana to such a young child. but then they met her. >> tell me about the first time you met matt, paige, and charlotte. >> hmm. >> i'm going to get you misty-eyed. >> yeah, you get all of us crying when we start talking about that little girl. >> the figges had hit the jackpot, a steady supply of high-cbd marijuana, and they only had to pay what they could afford. >> people have called us the robinhoods of marijuana. they say we sell pot so we can take care of the kids, and the truly less fortunate. >> charlotte was the first of those kids. late spring 2012 she tried the stanley special marijuana, and again it worked. >> i can't tell you what that means to us. >> gets you, doesn't it, a little bit? >> if it doesn't get you,

something is wrong with you. she lived her life in a catatonic state. now her parents get to meet her for the first time. what a revelation. >> the child who had 300 seizures a week was now down to just one every seven days. >> pitter pat, tiptoe. >> when i first met charlotte, march of 2013 it was one year after that first dose of marijuana. >> achoo. >> after almost two years on a feeding tube, she was now eating on her own. >> yellow. >> she was talking. even walking. >> please. >> she said please. >> but these stories, they are not without their skeptics. one of the country's two hospitals dedicated to gervais syndrome in florida states at present there is no evidence

that cannabidiol is effective for the treatment of epilepsy. the american academy of pediatrics also opposes cannabis as does the national institute on drug abuse. >> it is such an amazing turn of events that it really can't be a fluke, but i do still wonder. >> do you still wonder too, matt? >> hell no. >> you know it's working? >> it's working great. >> you just look wonderful. >> and charlotte's doctor, alan shackelford, also agrees. yet his commitment to medical marijuana has drawn criticism. he has even been called dr. feel good. >> how difficult is this for you to talk about as a physician? >> we are typically conservative as a profession and probably as individuals. we want more proof, and cannabis doesn't have that. >> and it's why he has traveled the world to look for researchers who might have the answers. that took him to the place many call the medical marijuana research capital. israel.

it might surprise you, but actually, research into cannabis and epilepsy started here in the 1970s with studies showed it can reduce convulsions in rats. today shackleford is hoping to start clinical trials in humans there. >> we need to understand it well enough that they won't be reluctant to at least give it a thought. at least try it. >> and it's not just epilepsy, but researchers in israel are studying a variety of illnesses. when we come back, what they're finding up close, and an amazing look inside hospitals and nursing homes where patients are lighting up courtesy of the israeli government. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential?

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as the sun was rising on the ancient city of jerusalem, the final leg of our journey was just beginning. >> there had been some great advances here, and i'm proud of that, obviously. >> dr. boas lev is with israel's ministry of health. here they have pioneered marijuana research. they were the first to isolate thc and cbd decades ago. now the country's ministry licensed 10,000 patients to use marijuana medicinally and has approved more than a dozen studies to treat illnesses like ptsd, pain, crohn's disease, even cancer.

>> hopefully this would prove to be the best medication. i really hope so. we're not there yet. >> the answers might come from places like this. it's a state-run nursing home outside of tel aviv. residents here are using marijuana for pain, loss of appetite, parkinson's disease, and dementia. moshe root is one of those residents. he was 77 when he smoked his first pipe of marijuana. he is 80 now, and he smokes a couple of pipes a day. it's to help with the pain and the hand tremors caused by stroke. >> it's a mixture of tobacco and marijuana. >> he even decided to light up during our interview to stop his hands from shaking. >> you are saying your hands are steady because of the marijuana? >> it also helped ease a deeper pain hidden from sight. you see moshe is a holocaust survivor. when his wife died a couple of

years ago, he was haunted by nightmares of his childhood hiding from the nazis. the marijuana, he says, took him out of the darkness. >> you dream. you fly. >> when you smoke? >> yeah. >> there are 19 other patients here. scientists at tel aviv university are now studying their progress. they call the results outstanding. including weight gain, improved mood, pain and tremor reduction. but i can tell you as a doctor it was my next stop that proved the most surprising. this is israeli's largest hospital, sheba medical center. he is using marijuana to help him with the pain and nausea from chemotherapy. >> filling up the spoon. so that's your medicine inside there. >> you want to take it out? >> and he's doing it inside the hospital.

>> how are you feeling? >> relief. first of all in the muscle in the leg. >> and you're not worried about any potential damage to your body? >> not at all. the opposite, actually. i really believe i can be cancer-free for a long time if i continue, you know, consume cannabis. >> yes, he said cancer-free. very early studies on mice in israel, spain, and the united states are now showing the potential of marijuana to kill cancer cells. it's exciting research, but it is still in its infancy, and it's inconclusive. this program at sheba is well established, and experts say a teaching tool for using marijuana in other hospitals. >> do you think this could happen in the united states? >> i don't know that there's yet enough really concrete evidence of cannabis's benefit that's

satisfactory. at least in that context. i think it's going to come. >> but it could be slow going. >> the fda has been great at approving studies. but national institute of drug abuse has been really stonewalling and blocking any studies looking at therapeutic effects of cannabis, because that's not their mandate. their mandate is to look at the harms of drug use. >> it's very easy to blame an organization. >> dr. nora volkow, who is the director of nida says they are not standing in the way. she claims they are not the only government institute that approves marijuana research. >> if you would come up with a grant that says, okay, this is going to be a treatment for drug addiction, then go to us, but if it's cancer, it goes to the cancer institute. if it is schizophrenia, it goes to imh, the institutes have a mission with certain diseases. >> what is clear, there are bureaucratic hoops that most researchers simply don't want to jump through.

neuroscientist carl hart. >> there are not many people studying marijuana. it's very difficult to get approved to study marijuana. >> what's nice about israel is that the government is helping the research to happen. >> and it's research that could give hope to patients like charlotte figge. scientists in israel are learning that marijuana use might actually protect the brain, not damage it. >> they've been able to show that it can decrease the amount of brain damage from head injuries in mice. >> right. to be able to give a medicine after the injury to reverse some of the damage, that's huge. >> i want to paint my nails. >> you want to paint your nails? i'll paint your nails. >> i literally see charlotte's brain making connections that haven't been made in years. it's almost seeming to build her brain where before it seemed broken. >> and while scientists are still at the early stages of knowing if this is actually happening, i can tell you it was

remarkable to see her progress. in the three months since we first met her, we saw a change. she was now talking more. >> say puppy. >> puppy! >> yay! >> she's horseback riding. >> good girl. >> she even rides a bike on her own. and the special strain made for charlotte is now named for her. it's charlotte's web. >> it is charlotte's plant. >> it's charlotte's plant. not anymore. now it's for all the children. >> more than 41 children are using charlotte's web here in colorado. all of them are reporting significant seizure reduction, and there are dozens more on a wait list hoping, praying that a plant could change their lives. just like it did for charlotte. >> i'm going to get you. >> you both seem very at peace. >> i'm very at peace, yeah. very peaceful. >> we've been given a great life. it's unfortunate that charlie has this gervais syndrome, but

thank god we've got something now that's working. >> she's doing so great today. in his documentary "weed" -- >> you've looked at the evidence. >> there's real since out there. >> a year-long journey that changed what many of us thought about marijuana, myself included. >> i think we've been terribly and systematically misled. >> we used to only picture this. then we showed you this. medical marijuana treating seizures, pain, dozens of other ailments. >> charlotte is doing amazing, better and better each month. >> but we learned this wasn't the end of the story, it was just the beginning. >> i think we went from about 150 calls a month to over 4,000. >> there's still so many issues to be addressed.