republican. democrat. independent. your party doesn't matter anymore. it's fixing this mess. boxer's been there twenty-eight years. and, look what we've got. when bickering ends, solutions begin. i'm prepared to oppose my party when it's wrong. we can change washington but first you have to vote, to change the people we send there. i'm carly fiorina and i approve this message. jerry brown opposes the death penalty. even for cop killers. he signed an inmates bill of rights. one supreme court judge that brown appointed was so liberal... he voted to stop the death penalty 64 times. we know the real story on jerry brown. now you do too.

the pot dealer as businessman. as california considers the complete legalization of marijuana, entrepreneurs like justin hartfield get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make money. and social networking works its way into every aspect of our lives. plus, ceo sean harden got there first. our reporters this week from "usa today's" john schwartz and sarah lacy of tech crunch, this week on "press here." good morning, everyone, i'm scott mcgrew. this november, california will go to the ballot box to decide, among other things, whether the

recreational use of pot should be legal. now, whether you think that's good idea or a bad idea, there is one thing that is certain. there is a whole lot of money to be made. >> with the downfall of prohibition -- >> reporter: not since the end of prohibition or the start of the dot com revolution has there been a new business model sprung upon the world seemingly out of nowhere, the sale of marijuana, aboveboard and out in front of everyone. california already permit the medical use of marijuana and pot stores are not an uncommon sight. entrepreneurs smell green. >> tha y.ou >> reporter: a website called weed map shows m locatio of dispensaries and connects potential patients with

prescription-writing doctors. in a stock market of sorts, showing the current prices of various pot strains, all perfectly legal under current california law, and a potential gold mine if laws get even looser. but its founder, justin hart field, says he can't find mainstream investors to grow the business, claiming one prominent venture capitalist said, "you have an awesome business and it will probably be worth a ton of money someday, but i can't pull the trigger." justin heararthartfield runs we maps.com and he works for a think tank promoting technology and civic involvement among young people. joined by sarah lacy of tech crunch, john schwartz of "usa today." before we start, normally i launch into this, i do want to point out regardless of what california has decided so far who are does decide in the future, the possession of marijuana is still against federal law and eric holder, the

attorney general, has said he is not going to prosecute, not something that the justice department is interested in, but i always cringe every time a newscaster says legal pot, it is still against federal law. now let's talk about whether you are for or against it is not rel vablt in this discussion, at least to begin w let's talk about the business of this. you have had several problems getting this business up and running even though what you're doing is, by california law, very legal. >> yeah. and we have had problems from vendors, from raising capital. pretty much every major roadblock, we have hit it the very first month we are in business, we started accepting credit cards we got shut down by our credit card processor and had to find a new processor, so took two and a half months to get money in the bank accounts to pay our employees. we recently got banned by t mobile, sending out two text

messages a day to over 10,000 subscribers and doing that for over a year, working great for us, a great marketing opportunity, one day last week we got shut down. >> you have launched a court case in this. you are sending out to subscribers, people who wanted to be text messaged to -- >> yeah. >> -- messages about ate veil billity of marijuana? >> yeah, exactly, using this third party provider called ez texting, who has actually sued t mobile because t mobile shut them down, not just our line the encompany, the shortcut it is called and they can't conduct business now. >> said in the startup piece odd hard time raising money even though a venture capitalist told you is an awesome business it sounds like it may not be an awesome business, you have problems with partners in venture capital. remind mess the early days of paypal, sold to ebay and google. you have a big risk to the business.

>> yeah, like scott said it is still federally illegal, however, the attitude is changing ever day. people are realizing that marijuana prohibition has failed, a failed policy. prop 19 in california november is going to be a huge kind of test to see where the california voting public is on this and if they do, indeed, pass prop 19 it is going to be legal as de facto in california t is federally illegal, there is still tremendous opportunity in the med cal marijuana, legal marijuana business and we are doing pretty well. >> how large is this whole industry, we talk about medicinal marijuana is it a multibillion industry? >> yeah. it is a black market. economists don't agree. some economists say a $10 billion industry, other economists $120 billion industry. >> even if it were 15ds to 0 billion industry, how would that rank among industries in california? >> a little less than the tobacco industry. >> okay. >> we are in the midst of a minidepression, huge economic opportunity, you would think

eventually somebody who is an investor would say, despite the obstacles -- >> never invested in porn on the internet, the most profitable business. >> big companies have, satellite television. >> hotels. >> makes a ton of money on it. >> also disguise it, you have a pie finger logo. what was your branding decision on whether to own this or about a little bit aboveboard or say these are pay-per-view movies? >> medical something. >> as opposed to weed. >> weed maps. >> that is a great point. we don't like to be hypocritical and don't feel like there should be arbitrary differences between recreational and medical just needs to be legalized. bad policy in the books we have right now. >> i want to jump in real quickly this tv show is on the internet around the world. it was in the setup piece a

little bit of it. current any california, under california law it is easy to get a doctor's note, you may smoke, under california law, a certain amount of marijuana legally, which is how you're operating currently? >> yep. >> come november there will be a vote whether to expand that and most people know that but i realize there is going to be some people who say, wait is it legal or not? i'm sorry, john. >> see historical parallel between what is happening now and what happened during the great depression, maybe we break down barriers to accepting what you're trying to do, just like the alcohol industry went through? >> i do see a lot of par levels. alcohol prohibition ended during the great depression. we are the new deal. >> we need a drink. >> the economy. >> really we just -- at the time, we didn't have the money to enforce alcohol prohibition. federal government didn't have money to enforce alcohol prohibition like the federal government doesn't have the money to enforce marijuana prohibition. if it legalizes it this november, it will be interesting to see how the federal government reacts january 1st

when it is, indeed, legal. i think and most of my advisers and people around me think that the feds aren't going to do anything. eric holder is going to be true to his word. this is going to be a real industry, maybe not venture capital. >> which is good for you. you will own 100% of a million dollar company. >> we are looking at publicly traded companies, in negotiations with a -- >> do you need money? >> you know, we don't need need money, we have -- profitable but see this huge opportunitity for expansion and want to get talent and see value created in market and think we can do t. >> you told "the wall street journal" $20,000 a month off the website in dot com is not huge but profitable and you can reinvest the capital. >> i'm happy to say it has increased. i just got the numbers from last month, august. we did gross about $300,000. >> 20,000 to 300,000. >> the 20,000, june 2009, august

2010, $300,000 in growth. >> per month? >> per month. >> we have a business model that is based on disstepries' ability to post strains to our weed menu, built this ajax api. >> 27,000 active items available now you can go on the site and search for your favorite strain. it is innovative not just for marijuana but many industries. we took the model and customize it had towards this industry. >> we will stop there for a quick commercial break but be back with justin hartfield and weed maps in just a moment.

our points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel. we're like forget florida, we're going on a safari. so we're on the serengeti, and seth finds a really big bone. we're talking huge. they dig it up, put it in the natural history museum and we get to name it. sethasauraus. really. your points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel? means better vacations. that's incredible. believe it...with chase sapphire preferred your points are worth 25% more on travel when booked through ultimate rewards. you know it's bad when the press asks if you'd take a lie detector test. meg whitman didn't tell the truth about not voting or about how long she lived in california. she got caught in insider deals at goldman sachs. she changed her story about physically abusing an employee. she campaigned as tough as nails on immigration knowing her housekeeper of 9 years was undocumented. her tv ads have been condemned as false and misleading. and even her hometown newspaper said meg whitman has demonstrated "a loose relationship with the truth"

before we continue our discussion this morning, i wanted to remind you, you can join in on the debate on our website, press here tv.com where we have a live chat that will work on ipad, iphone, laptop, pc as the show's playing out on television. add your own feedback, find out what other people think. we are there too. went site, by the way, much improved, much faster, you will find the chat information on the right-hand side of the page. meanwhile, we were talking with justin hartfield of weed maps. you are not popular among the medical marijuana advocates, though you advocate for the use of marijuana. >> i see you googled my name. >> i googled you. yes. >> and that's because so there is kind of a line between medical and recreational.

the current patients are worried if it happens in november, they will lose their rights as patients. that is not the case. the current med medical marijuana system will be in place, there is a sentiment that i'm trying to sell out the real medical marijuana patients that really need this marijuana to live their life every single day and try to profit from it but that is not the case. some of my best friends use medical marijuana every day and something that is extremely effective, one of the most effective medicines known to man. yeah there is a lot of bad press. >> given all these obstacles that you face from almost every conceivable angle, why did you start this -- except the pot smokers, right, there are plenty of them, why did you decide to do something like this? did you anticipate this? >> this is like my fourth startup. i had -- i'm serial entrepreneur and that's the name given to people that failed a lot. >> right.

right. >> so, you know, this was like the brain child of prom meetious, the executive vice president there and we advocate technology to increase freedom. we just believe that freedom is going to interfere in truth. americans have a chronic fear of freedom. we created weed maps, we wanted to -- >> any high-profile advocates, names, politician, anybody? >> woody harrelson. >> any advocates? >> woody harrelson would be a good one? >> no celebrities per se, people in the marijuana industry, the former national director and we work for a lot of nonprofits in the industry, medical marijuana and -- >> and i addressed that earlier, this tension between you and, yes, i did google you, a website called free tainted says that you make the money off the backs of patients and providers and my thought was what entrepreneurs do, they make money. there is -- >> but you are not controlling

the supply. >> that is my point. especially with marijuana, there is this sort of community idea about we are going to make things out of hemp and all this. and then there are entrepreneurs coming in because this may be legal and there's a huge tension between those two groups. >> yeah. >> the users and sellers. >> but the dispensaries are pretty capitalist. >> no question. >> i think that change happened -- >> why we are doing a show on it all of a sudden capitalists coming to -- >> packaged weed peanut buttercups in stores. >> what is scaring them, you guys are the yelp of the industry. >> had to do that ourselves for a long time. >> now somebody coming along who might disturb that whole model. >> very disruptive what we are doing at weed maps, before, you didn't know where the dispensaries, were read the newspaper, or find out from a friend. weed maps comes along, now you know and now you can search by your favorite strain.

we are redoing the scene here, yeah, some people are going to get pissed off. >> i take you back before you had to look at your favorite alternative newspaper, you had to know a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy sort of thing t is out from the. i drive by and there is a pot store. >> you stop and you go in. >> i don't, but i think -- it only took a month or two to go from oh my god there is a pot store to, okay, you take left -- >> 7-11 now. >> go to the pot store, past the starbucks and gonna change. >> i want to ask you you have any numbers to back up what you said earlier that people are getting more tolerant of this 'cause i think that is a san francisco bubble. i just don't buy it. i'm from the south and i think there is a lot of resistance to medical marijuana, much less recreational marijuana. you think the country is really ready for this? >> you are right, very regionalized, in the south, especially deep south, medical marijuana is not on the table. you look at the trends, normal done a lot of great studies, look at the trends in the whole nation, people favor legalization, people are

believing in california, more than 50% think that legalization is a good idea. others it is less, oregon and washington it is pretty similar, too, but a sea change coming and i think that it could happen. prop 19 is going to accelerate things and i think internationally, not just in the united states but spain and france and other countries that are considering legalization are going to try that. >> justin hartfield, we will leave it there thanks for joining us. >> thanks. up next here, rethinking the way we web surf to something we own to more social. fox ceo sean harding tries to make the web browser friendly. so, we book a flight to hawaii using our points from chase sapphire. last minute... on christmas. and sitting next to us, chevy chase. and we really hit it off. we play golf, and then the luau. he's like da vinci with ice. and after, we help hang christmas decorations. wait, wait, wait. you flew last minute... on christmas... with points from chase sapphire?

yeah. amazing. believe it. with points from chase sapphire, you can book airline tickets with no blackout dates or restrictions. welco willcome back to "pre here." facebook and twitter have evolved, crawling out of the social network soup and crawling

onto the beachhead of our every day lives. the taco trucks in san francisco tweet where they are at lunchtime. coordinating a high school reunion is easy, thanks to facebook. and a ride to the airport is just an instant message away. social networking is part of our lives, the regular computer user, though, still logs into facebook or twitter or flicker one site at a time. sean harden says why not make their presence persistent? his web browser, built on top of google's chrome technology, makes your facebook friends, your twitter tweets, part of the surfing experience, all your social, all the time. sean harden is ceo of flack, he's long high-tech pedigree, former senior vice president to america online and executive at yahoo! form other executive vice president at nbc, joined by sarah lacy of tech crunch and

john schwartz of usa today you and the web browser this company, saw this coming, this idea that it is more than just, hey, facebook is really neat but rather facebook becomes something i do while i surf and include my friends in. >> yeah, the fundamental basis for flock has been this social phenomenon wasn't going to go away, a pretty important part of how we conduct ourselves online and odd while we see such a dramatic shift to consumer behavior that fen no, ma'am noll remains completely disconnected to convention brucers. >> explain what flack does, a web browser i can download. what i do get out of it? >> a fast, modern web browse they're helps our users unclutter the volume of daily information that comes at them and better man ant key relationships across multiple social networks right in the browser. >> by having facebook on one side, twitter across the top? >> our users log into their favorite social networks, we pull all of that content and information in a sidebar.

>> like maya hoo was, personalize yahoo! accumulate orring a greg get a bunch of different information on one site rather than jump from one website to another or -- >> one of the primary ideas is that identity, user identity makes sense in the most personal and pervasive applications we all used, that is the web browser. we log into the sites, pull in the content and friends you care about, sidebar easy to review and make sure you are doing searchers in the browser content from your friends shows up if you are in a match. >> are you an uncomfortable situation between the old internet world and people are stodgy and things respect particularly user friendly and do it that way because we have been trained and the new android, iphone, ipad world, a lot of the stuff is pulled into your phone and you don't go to the browser to do stuff anyway? how do you navigate those two? >> well, i would argue that really the browser is the hub of all of our activity online, if you're talking about a desktop world and certainly agree that increasingly, the mobile access

is key for how i also connect a across multiple devices, multiple points of my experience each day, but the web browse they're starts and ends everything that you do online. so for, you know exbillions of people, the browser is still a critical way they are consuming content and connecting with friends. >> see this maybe a practical way to manage your time, between jumping from one website to another all day it can be time consuming and a drain, maybe is the way to go to one place and maximize my ease? >> absolutely. one of the most significant repeated pieceful of information is we help them stay connected while being productive. >> how do you get -- i don't even know if microsoft explorer is still the number one web browser, might not be, fire fox? fire fox came out of nowhere and dominated the internet. below there you have google chrome and opera, safari.

opera, safari, chrome, you are a subset of that. you run off the google chrome platform. how do you get in front of people if there are that many different competitors? >> it is -- we are -- we kind of walk the talk so we are a social browser and we grow through word of mouth. so we have no paid marketing, passed 20 million of our download product and 8 % of their users recommend the product to their friends, 40s for six or more of their friends and is how we go grow. >> fire fox had sophisticated strategies how to grow that way, open store sort of to cred, profit company that appeal that people, techie kids that inbe stall it for their parents, do you have any specific kind of grilled viral marketing or hopefully people will love us and tell other people? >> for us it is the social orientation that really we are focused on is making the experience, sharing sort of the

gasoline of the social phenomenon, full, so making effortless for people to engage with the kind that they care about and from their friends directly from their browser, including recommendation and word of mouth about our own product. >> do you have any overhead? if you walk into the office and they say, sorry, sean, nobody downloaded -- realize it didn't happen, nobody downloaded the browser today, you are not out anything? >> yeah it has been an interesting phenomenon bus every day we grow a little bit more. it has been a five-year journey to just watch how you explode at different times in different parts of the world. you don't always know why. for example, recently, we day care jakarta and indonesia market has just exploded. >> indonesia is swarming everything on the web and they are so big social, i'm not surprised. the second largest country for facebook and twitter, four square huge. >> why is that? >> 'cause 240 million people and no one there and they have an equal sized -- they have an equal sized web audience to

brazil and india. you can get easy data pay by the second blackberry plans. everyone on facebook and twitter throughout their blackberries. >> mentioning that in your new book? >> you are able to see as these things jump, the fascinating thing about social networking this odd behavior, almost like the flu, you see one little jump and then you see bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, obviously, biggest market is, i assume, the united states? >> actually no longer the case. >> really? >> our product is available in over 34 languages around the world and western europe, indonesia, asia, russia, it is very diverse today for u.s., the uk. the u.s. active users for us makes up about 35% of our total user base. >> i assume the answer is going to be google, but by selling something for free, how do you

make any money? >> business model is search. so people search a lot. in fact, the number one thing they do in the browser and we have direct deals with both google, yahoo! and ask and so as people search for those products, we get a revenue share. >> do you think there is a point could you have security problems with being facebook and twitter and not tracking what i'm searching and then i take a website and say to my facebook friend, you should check this out, document know that, right? >> you know anymore than the social network. i'm integrated with the services at api level, allows to you carry around your access to these services even when not visiting that website location, if you wish. it is totally in users control. i don't know anymore than the site that you are connected with or the api allows. >> facebook niece lot about me, would you know at least as much as they do about what happened. >> yeah. >> but all of that data is

private and -- becauser we are a browser first and foremost, we have ways people can, if they wish leerkts to more easily share that content across different communities and across networks. >> issue of privacy come up with customers? that concern you? >> we have had no problem, we have a product on mozilla, fire fox, chrome, the same as the google chrome product and both of those we continue to keep secure and private based on what they make in the market. >> sean hardison the ce. of flock, i assume at flock.com, all right? >> yeah. >> press here will be back in just a moment. our points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel. we're like forget florida, we're going on a safari. so we're on the serengeti, and seth finds a really big bone. we're talking huge. they dig it up, put it in the natural history museum and we get to name it. sethasauraus. really. your points from chase sapphire preferred are worth 25% more on travel?

means better vacations. that's incredible. believe it...with chase sapphire preferred your points are worth 25% more on travel when booked through ultimate rewards. >> my thanks to my guests, justin hartfield and sean harden, available at flock.com and the two versions are both in the top ten of facebook's list of apps. the vote to legalize marijuana, meanwhile is proposition 19.

officially known as the regulate, control and tax cannabis act. it needs a simple majority to pass. a recent field poll says 51% of californians support legalization. i'm scott mcgrew. thank you for making us part of your sunday morning.