captioning funded by cbs and ford >> pelley: the administration wanted to support al qaeda, go ahead. >> you haven't heard much from syrian president assad because he's given only one american interview to charlie rose. and with the negotiations ongoing about removing and destroying syria's chemical weapons you'll hear from president obama tonight, too. >> this may be a first step in what potentially could be an end to terrible bloodshed and millions of refugees throughout the region that is of deep concern to us and our allies. >> right now assad feels he's winning. >> miller: the c.i.a.'s mike

morell provided intelligence briefings for president obama, and in his first tv interview, he gave us a briefing on syria and what that complicated civil war means to the united states. in the broadest sense, where is this syria thing going to take us? >> i fear the break-up of the state of syria. the collapse of the central government. sectarian warfare, opportunity for al qaeda to have a safe haven. >> kroft: if you want to know what legalized marijuana might look like, the place to go is colorado, which has the most developed medical marijuana industry in the country. >> when patients arrive this is where they'll have to put their registry card and driver's license to gain access to the actual marijuana center itself. >> kroft: you can smell it. it's not a joking matter. 20 states have legalized marijuana for medical use, and in some cases as a way to raise money for their cash-strapped state budgets.

all of those people are violating federal law. >> exactly. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm leslie stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ she loves a lot of it's what you love about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow.

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>> pelley: during the last week, president obama's plan for dealing with the syrian nerve gas attack has changed radically.

the u.s. path toward air strikes has merged into a road of international cooperation to end the crisis. under russian pressure, president bashar al-assad has offered to surrender his chemical arsenal to international authorities, and the united states, while skeptical, will allow diplomacy an opportunity. as the crisis has developed, cbs news has been able to talk with both leaders. we spoke with president obama at the white house. but we'll begin with charlie rose's conversation with president assad last sunday in damascus. the syrian leader ranged from coy to combative. he denied ordering the gas attack and he would not confirm or deny even the existence of chemical weapons in syria, but he did seem open to a diplomatic solution. >> rose: would you give up chemical weapons if it would prevent the president from authorizing a strike? if that is a deal you would accept? >> bashar al-assad: again, you always imply that we have chemical weapons. >> rose: i have to, because that's the assumption of the president.

that is his assumption and he's the one who will order the strike. >> al-assad: it's his problem, if he has an assumption. but for us, in syria, we have principles. we'll do anything to prevent the region from another crazy war. it's not only syria. because it will start in syria... >> rose: you'll do anything to prevent the region from having... >> al-assad: the region. >> rose: ...from having another crazy war? >> al-assad: yes. >> rose: you recognize the consequences for you if there is a strike? >> al-assad: it's not about me. it's about the region. >> rose: well, it's about your country. it's about your people. >> al-assad: of course, of course. my country and me, we are part of this region. >> rose: was there a moment for you as you saw the arab spring approaching syria, that you said, "i've seen what happened in libya, i've seen what happened in tunisia, i've seen what happened in egypt. it's not going to happen to bashar al-assad. i will fight anybody who tries to overthrow my regime with everything i have."

>> al-assad: no, for one reason, because first question that i ask, "do i have public support or not?" that's the first question that i ask as president. if i don't have the public support, whether there's arab... what's... the so-called arab spring, it's not spring anyway. but whether we have this or we don't, if you don't have public support, you have to quit. you have to leave. if you have public support in any circumstances, you have to stay. that's your mission. you have to help the people. you have to... to serve the people. so... and i never said... yeah, sorry. >> rose: no, go ahead. when you say "public support," people will point to syria and they say, "a minority sect, alawites, control a majority sunni population. and it's a dictatorship and they do it because of force of their own instruments of power." that's how... that's what you have.

not public support for this war against... >> al-assad: now, it's being... >> rose: other syrians. >> al-assad: yeah, now you've been... it's been two years and a half, okay? two years and a half and syria is still withstanding against the united states, the west, saudi arabia, the richest country in the... in this area, including turkey. and taking into consideration what your question implies, that even the big part, or the bigger part of the syrian population against me, how can i withstand until today? i'm either superhuman or superman, which is not the case. >> rose: or you have a powerful army. >> al-assad: the army made of the people. it cannot be made of robots. it's made of people, the... >> rose: surely you're not suggesting that this army is not at your will and the will of your family. >> al-assad: how can you... how what... what do you mean by the will of the family?

>> rose: the will of your family. >> al-assad: if... if... >> rose: your brother is in the military. the military has been at... i mean, every observer of syria believe that this is a country controlled by your family and controlled by the alawites, who are your allies. that's the control. >> al-assad: if that situation is correct, what you're mentioning, we wouldn't have withstand for two years and a half. we would have disintegration of the army, disintegration of the whole institution in the states, we would have disintegration of syria. >> rose: the president's gotten significant criticism, because he has not supported the rebels more. so the president has not given enough support to the rebels in the view of many people. and there's criticism that when he made a recent decision to give support, it has not gotten to the rebels, because they worry about the composition.

>> al-assad: if the american administration wanted to support al qaeda, go ahead. that what they... we have to tell them. go ahead and support al qaeda. but don't talk about rebels and free syrian army and so on. the majority of fighters now are al qaeda. if you want to support them, you are supporting al qaeda. you are creating havoc in the region, and if this region is not stable, the whole world cannot be stable... >> rose: with respect, sir, you say that the rebels only survived because they have support from saudi arabia and turkey and the united states and qatar perhaps... >> al-assad: no, the difference... >> rose: and i'm saying that they say... >> al-assad: no, no, no. >> rose: ...you only survived... >> al-assad: no. >> rose: ...because you have the support of russia and iran and hezbollah. >> al-assad: no, the external support can never substitute internal support. can never, for sure. and the... the example that you have to look at very well: egypt and tunisia. they have all the support from the west and from the gulf and then from the... most of the countries in the world.

what they don't have support within their country, they couldn't continue more than how many weeks? three weeks. >> rose: you and i have talked about this before. and we remember hama and your father, hafez al-assad. he ruthlessly set out to eliminate the muslim brotherhood. are you simply being your father's son here? >> al-assad: i don't know what you mean by ruthlessly, because... >> rose: you know what happened at hama. >> al-assad: i've never heard the war... soft war. have you heard about soft war? there is no soft war. war is a war. any war is ruthless. and when you fight terrorists, you fight them like any other war. >> rose: so the lessons... >> al-assad: sorry. >> rose: you have here are the lessons you've learned from your father and what he did in hama, and which it is said and influenced you greatly. >> al-assad: said what? sorry. >> rose: it is said that what your father did at hama

influenced you greatly in terms of your understanding of what you have to do. >> al-assad: good question, what would you do as american, if the terrorists invading your country from different areas and started killing tens of thousands of americans? >> rose: you keep saying these are terrorists, but in fact, it is a popular revolution, people believe... >> al-assad: no. >> rose: ...against you that was part of the arab spring that influenced some of the other countries. >> al-assad: revolution should be syrian. cannot be revolution imported from abroad. >> rose: but it didn't start from abroad. it started here. >> al-assad: here, but those people that started here, they support the government now. again... that what you don't know. do... you don't know as american, you don't know as a reporter. that's what... that's why talking about what happened at the very beginning is completely different from what's happening now. it's not the same. there's very high dynamic things that have... are changing on daily basis. so it's completely different image. those people, though, who wanted revolution, they are cooperating with us. >> rose: i'm asking you again.

is it, in fact, you being your father's son, and you believe that the only way to drive out people is to eliminate them the same way your father did. >> al-assad: in being independent, yes. in fighting terrorism, yes. in defending the syrian people and the country, yes. >> rose: when i first interviewed you, there was talk of "bashar al-assad, he's the hope. he's the reformer." that's not what they say anymore. >> al-assad: who? >> rose: people who write about you, people who talk about you, people who analyze syria and your regime. >> al-assad: exactly. so the hope for american is different from the hope of syrian. for me, i'm the hope of... i should be the hope of the syrian, not any other one. not american, not... no american, neither french, or anyone in the world. i'm president to help syrian people.

so this question should start from the hope of the syrian people. and if there's any change regarding that hope, we should ask the syrian people. not anyone else in the world. >> rose: but now they say, their words, a butcher. comparisons to the worst dictators ever to walk on the face of the earth-- comparing you to them. using weapons that go beyond warfare. everything they could say bad about a dictator, they're now saying about you. >> al-assad: first of all when you have doctor who cut the leg to prevent the patient from the gangrene, if you have to, we don't call him butcher, we call him doctor. and you... thank you for saving the lives. when you have terrorism, you have a war.

when you have a war, you always... you always have innocent lives that could be the victim. >> rose: the eyes of the world have been on syria. we have seen atrocities on both sides, but on your side as well. they have seen brutality by a dictator that they say... >> al-assad: okay, so we have to... >> rose: ...put you in a category with the worst. >> al-assad: yeah. so we have to allow the terrorists to come and kill the syrians and destroy the country much, much more? this is where you can be a good president? that's what you i'm... what you imply. >> rose: but you can't allow the idea that there is opposition to your government from within syria. that is not possible for you to imagine. >> al-assad: to imagine that we have opposition? >> rose: yes. >> al-assad: we have it and go... you can go and meet with them. we have some of them within the government, we have some of them outside the government. they are opposition. we have it. >> rose: but those are the people who have been fighting against you. >> al-assad: opposition is

different from terrorism. opposition is a political movement. opposition doesn't mean to take armament and kill people and destroy everything. this opposition opposing country or government by behaving, by barbecuing head, by eating the hearts of your victim? is that opposition? what do you call the people who attacked the two towers in the 11th of september? opposition? even though they are not american, i know this. but some of them, they have, i think, nationality. i think one of them has american nationality. do you call him opposition or terrorist? why should you use a term in the united states and england and maybe other countries and use another term in syria? this is a double standard that we don't accept. >> pelley: a day after that interview, the white house scheduled a brief conversation for us with president obama as the situation was beginning to change, with negotiations led by russia to secure syria's chemical weapons.

what do you need to see in a diplomatic deal? >> president obama: to paraphrase ronald reagan, that we don't just trust, but we also verify. and so the importance is to make sure that the international community has confidence that these chemical weapons are under control, that they are not being used, that potentially they are removed from syria and that they are destroyed. and there are a lot of stockpiles inside of syria, it's one of the largest in the world. let's see if they're serious. but we have to make sure that we can verify it and enforce it, and if in fact we're able to achieve that kind of agreement that has russia's agreement and the security council's agreement, then... my central concern in this whole episode is a result. it doesn't resolve the underlying terrible conflict in syria. and, you know, that i've always said is not amenable to a military solution.

we're going to have to get the parties to arrive at some sort of settlement. but this may be a first step in what potentially could be an end to terrible bloodshed and millions of refugees, throughout the region that... that is of deep concern to us and our allies. >> pelley: is the only agreement you would accept one in which we can be assured that all of syria's chemical weapons are destroyed? >> president obama: you know, i think it's premature for me to start drafting language. i think i want to see what exactly is being proposed and in the interim, it is very important for congress and the american people to recognize that we would not be getting even ticklers like this if it weren't for the fact that we were serious about potentially taking action in the absence of some sort of movement. it's in part humanitarian. any parent who sees those videos of those children being gassed i think understands what a human tragedy it is.

>> pelley: assad essentially put you on notice in the interview with charlie rose, he said of the united states, "if you strike somewhere, you have to expect the repercussions somewhere else in a different form, in a way that you don't expect." he brought up 9/11 as an example of the kind of thing america did not expect. do you take that as a threat? >> president obama: well, i mean, i think it was intended as a threat. i don't take it as a credible threat in the sense that mr. assad doesn't have the capacity to strike us in a significant way. some of his allies like iran and hezbollah do have the capacity to engage in asymmetrical strikes against us. our intelligence, i think is very clear they would not try to escalate a war with us over limited strikes to deal with this chemical weapon issue. keep in mind, iran was subjected to chemical weapons use by saddam hussein. so the iranian population thinks chemical weapons are terrible

and probably consider what assad did to be a grave mistake. so i don't think they would start a war with us over that. but what is true is that you know, our embassies in the region, u.s. personnel in the region-- they're always potentially vulnerable to asymmetrical attacks. but the truth of the matter is, those threats already exist from a whole range of groups. and we understand what those threats are and take those precautions very seriously. >> pelley: mr. president, the administration has described evidence to the american people and the world but it hasn't shown evidence. and i wonder at this point, what are you willing to show? what are we going to see in terms of the evidence that you say we have? >> president obama: well, keep in mind what we've done is we have provided unclassified evidence. but members of congress are getting a whole slew of classified briefings. and they're seeing very directly exactly what we have. keep in mind, scott, that the... this is not a problem i'm looking for.

i'm not looking for an excuse to engage in military action. and i understand deeply how the american people-- after a decade of war, are not interested in any kind of military action that they don't believe involves our direct national security interests. i get that. and members of congress i think understand that. but in this situation where there's clear evidence that nobody credibly around the world disputes that chemical weapons were used, that over a thousand people were killed, that the way that these weapons were delivered makes it almost certain that assad's forces used them, when even iran has acknowledged that chemical weapons were used inside of syria. and i think it is important for us to run to ground every diplomatic channel that we can. there's a reason why i went to

congress in part to allow further deliberation not just here domestically but also internationally. but i think it's very important for us to make sure that we understand this is important. and if the american people are not prepared to... to stand up for what is a really important international norm, then i think a lot of people around the world will take that signal that this norm is not important. >> pelley: the people aren't with you. >> president obama: yeah, well, not yet. if you ask the average person, including my household, "do we need another military engagement?" i think the answer generally is going to be no. but what i'm going to try to propose is... is that we have a very specific objective, a very narrow military option, and one that will not lead into some large-scale invasion of syria or involvement or boots on the ground, nothing like that.

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>> pelley: now cbs news correspondent john miller on assignment. >> every day in the oval office, the president gets a classified intelligence briefing. for the last year, an important part of that briefing has been the bloody civil war in syria. as the number two man at the c.i.a., mike morell was a key voice in those meetings. after 33 years in the c.i.a., there may be no one in washington with as much experience in briefing presidents on complex security issues. morell retired from the c.i.a. just six days before the chemical attacks in syria. in his first television interview, he told us what the war in syria means to an already

brittle region and why it matters to the security of americans at home. in the broadest sense, where is this syria thing going to take us? >> mike morell: i'm concerned, because i fear the breakup of the state of syria. collapse of the central government, sectarian warfare, opportunity for al qaeda to have a safe haven in syria that is not dissimilar to the safe haven that it once enjoyed in afghanistan and once enjoyed in the fata. >> miller: in your briefings with the president on syria, did you discuss that possibility with him? >> morell: yes, that was shared with the president. >> miller: and what was his response to that picture? >> morell: he takes that very seriously. and certainly agrees that that is an outcome that is possible and needs to be avoided. >> miller: as deputy director of the c.i.a., mike morell was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the agency.

he oversaw thousands of spies and analysts, who formulate the very intelligence that's applied to decisions involving the prevention of terrorist attacks to the formulation of foreign policy. the secretary of state has said that there's an al qaeda influence among the rebels in syria, but it's a small percentage. and that the overarching group of rebels are looking for a moderate government. has he miscast that? >> morell: the two groups that are in some way affiliated with al qaeda-- al-nusra and then ahrar ash-sham-- are the two most effective organizations on the battlefield. and because they're so good at fighting the syrians, some of the moderate members of the opposition joined forces with them to fight the syrians. >> miller: the end of the civil war in syria could offer one of two bad outcomes; a stronger more brutal assad regime or a rebel government influenced by al qaeda.

i've spoken to intelligence analysts who have said an uncomfortable thing that has a ring of truth, which is the longer this war in syria goes on in some sense, the better off we are. >> morell: yeah. so i disagree with that. the best outcome is a negotiated settlement between the opposition and between the regime that allows for a political transition that keeps the institutions of the state intact. >> miller: how realistic is that? >> morell: the reason that is important, john, is because it's going to take the institution of the syrian military and the institutions of the syrian security services to defeat al qaeda when this is done. and every day that goes by, every day that goes by, those institutions are eroded. >> miller: so how do you more effectively influence that? >> morell: right now, assad feels he's winning, so he has absolutely no incentive. so, enough support has to be provided to the opposition, to put enough pressure on assad, to

bring him to the negotiating table, but not enough support provided to the opposition so that they feel that they don't need to go to the negotiating table. it's a very difficult balance to strike. >> miller: is that more or less support than is being provided now? >> morell: i think it's more. >> miller: one of our reporters was just there and toured a rebel weapons depot and they said, "you know, the stuff we've gotten is old, it's outdated, it's not enough. we're not really getting support." are we in this? are we not in this? do we need to be in it more? >> morell: the president announced a number of months ago that we would provide military support to the opposition and there is the moderate opposition which the united states is trying to support in any number of ways, and there is a radical opposition that we want to make sure that we don't support. >> miller: as a career c.i.a. analyst mike morell looks at a

problem from every angle and what he sees in syria is more complex than just a civil war. behind the scenes he sees four wars. the people against a dictator, al-qaeda against secular government, sunnis against shias and a proxy war between the saudis and the iranians for dominance in the region. >> morell: so this needs to be done with extreme care and extreme caution and that... that takes a little time. >> miller: if there's a u.s. strike against syria, syria could retaliate. is it in their interest to do so? >> morell: i don't think it's in their interest to retaliate. i don't think it's in their interest to start a broader war with israel or a broader war with the united states. >> miller: what about somebody other than syria retaliating for a strike on syria? >> morell: so the two most obvious players are iran and hezbollah. they would have no interest in retaliating in a conventional sense because they don't want to get into a war. >> morell: what i think you're

likely to see from iran and hezbollah would be asymmetric attacks. so terrorist attacks, cyber attacks. and i think the decision would be made in tehran not in damascus. >> miller: so what you're saying is even if assad made the decision not to strike back after a u.s. attack, iran could decide to do it without him? >> morell: correct. and it could be... it could be months down the road that such a response occurred, particularly if it's in a terrorist attack that takes time to put together. >> miller: would that simply be an iranian punishment operation against the united states? >> morell: uh-huh. >> miller: for what was a punishment operation against syria? >> morell: uh-huh. that's how they would see it. >> miller: if we send cruise missiles into syria, one of the potential responses is not a military response in the conventional sense, at all, but a cyber attack. >> morell: so if there were to be a cyber response to a u.s. attack on syria, i would expect it to come from iran, not syria. >> miller: iran's last cyber

attack on a serious level wiped out 85% of the hardware of saudi arabia's biggest oil company. that sounds like a fairly serious capability. >> morell: iran's capabilities are growing every day with regard to cyber. you have to have two things to do serious damage. you have to have the right tools, and you have to have access. and the hard part is the access. >> miller: do you think that iran has enough access to u.s. either government or just as likely a private sector critical infrastructure things to do damage? >> morell: no, but i think they're working on it. >> miller: from its sanctuary in afghanistan, al qaeda was able to plan and execute catastrophic attacks against the united states. a decade of war and drone attacks has all but decimated the organizational structure. but the al-qaeda narrative continues to spread to a growing number of affiliates across the

middle east and north africa. >> miller: when you see the potential of an al qaeda presence as dominant in syria, at the end of that conflict, or mali, or the case in somalia, have we spent all these lives and all these dollars to, rather than deny sanctuary, change the zip code for the terrorist base? >> morell: there is no doubt that the ideology has spread to north africa and to other parts of the middle east. and that those... those areas could eventually become the kind of safe haven that could pose a significant threat to us. they don't right now. they pose only a regional threat. but you know, the places that i'm worried about in terms of ultimately becoming a safe haven that could pose the kind of threat that al qaeda posed to us pre-9/11 is syria, number one, and number two, afghanistan, if the taliban were to get a grip

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legalized the medical use of marijuana for the treatment of things like glaucoma, the effects of chemotherapy, and chronic pain, defying federal laws that still consider marijuana more dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamine. in november voters in two states, washington and colorado, went so far as to approve marijuana recreational use, too. and as we first reported before that vote, if you want to know what legalized marijuana might look like, the place to go is colorado, which has the most developed medical marijuana industry in the country. in denver, if you want to find a medical marijuana dispensary, just look for the green cross. you won't have to go far. there are 204 of them in the mile high city; that's roughly three times the number of starbucks and mcdonald's combined. they come in all sizes and shapes. there is the health food store motif, and '70s-style head shops.

there are storefronts pitching low cost weed, and boutiques offering gourmet ganja. no stems and seeds here, just walnut-sized buds freshly harvested in the cultivation room out back. >> matt cook: when patients arrive, this is where they'll have to show their patient registry card and their driver's license to gain access to the actual marijuana center itself. >> kroft: you can smell it. ( laughs ) this is all private enterprise, licensed, regulated and taxed by the state. it was enshrined in the colorado constitution after voters approved an amendment allowing the sale the marijuana to people who can demonstrate that they may benefit from its avowed medicinal properties. matt cook, a former narcotics officer, wrote the law and served as the state's first director of enforcement. >> cook: if you'll note, video security cameras in the system... in the ceiling. >> kroft: any reason for that? >> cook: there is. we created a very transparent regulatory scheme and wanted to ensure that what they said they

were doing, they were actually doing. >> kroft: no state has gone to the lengths to manage medical marijuana than colorado has. every licensed dispensary must grow at least 70% of its own product-- indoors, so harvesting and sales can be closely monitored. this crop is worth about a quarter of million dollars. >> cook: we track everything from seed to sale. and they have to account for 100% of it. we've got a gentleman here that has a live, if you will, software program that does all of the tracking for this commodity. >> kroft: each plant has a bar code and is registered to a specific patient. most dispensaries will cultivate a couple of dozen different strains-- some of them proprietary, like ales at a microbrewery-- engineered to have particular characteristics, as our "budtender," carrie, explained. >> carrie: this is called jack frost, but it's a triple-a-- alert, awake, and aware. if you needed to medicate in the a.m. before going to work, no

one would ever be able to detect that you took any medicine, just as you would any other medicines that you take. so no physical lethargy, is my point. >> kroft: we should point out that those properties are anecdotal, and not based on studies by either the f.d.a. or the d.e.a., a subject we will get to shortly. there is also no correlation between the more popular brand names and the ailments they alleviate. dopium is a medication available at denver relief, owned by ean seeb. it's gotten high marks from critics-- yes, there are medical marijuana critics in colorado, even competitions. you won the colorado medical marijuana harvest cup couple of years ago? >> ean seeb: we did in 2009. and our biodiesel won five out of the six categories and first place. so we won the overall award. it was a sweeping victory, if you will. and then we put... >> kroft: "biodiesel"? >> seeb: yeah. >> kroft: that's the name of it? >> seeb: yes, it is. and it's... it's become... >> kroft: doesn't sound like medicine. >> seeb: there's a lot of strains out there that don't sound like medicine, because this didn't used to be legal.

and those strain names have not changed, you know, strains back in the '70s. you know, there was "afghani" that we still have, "ak-47" that came from the hindu kush region of afghanistan originally. >> kroft: but it's not all brand loyalty and nostalgia. there are lots of new things on the dispensary shelf, especially for non-smokers. they're called edibles, the marriage of botanical science and the culinary arts-- marijuana-infused cookies, candy, chocolate truffles, even olive oil. and for patients watching their waistline, there are marijuana pills that come in different strengths, just like tylenol and advil. >> carrie: you simply take it with a glass of water and it puts you where you need to be. >> kroft: the people who have invested money in all of this are known locally as "ganja- preneurs." colorado has had a history of gold rushes and silver rushes, and some people have dubbed this the "green rush"-- not just for the color of medical marijuana, but for the money that might eventually be made here if you are among the first to stake a

claim. kristi kelly was doing marketing in washington when she decided to invest in a medical marijuana dispensary. >> kristi kelly: there's not a lot of opportunities in any one lifetime where you can be a part of something from such an early stage. and so, ultimately, my partners begged me to come out. and my husband and i packed up our bags and shut down our life in d.c. and moved out here. >> tripp keber: the company's evolution has been fairly dynamic. >> kroft: tripp keber is c.e.o. of dixie elixirs, the leading manufacturer of cannabis-laced edibles. it supplies most of the state's 537 dispensaries from this factory, which he calls state- of-the-art for the industry, which means small scale. >> keber: so here we have lexi, who is one of our production specialists. she's preparing our medicated chocolate rolls, which are certainly one of our most popular edibles products.

>> kroft: smells really good. it looks good. >> thank you. ( laughter ) >> kroft: dixie elixir's product line includes ice creams and medicated beverages that come in ten different flavors. >> keber: we have a 75- milligram, 12-ounce sparkling red currant, would be the equivalent of four or five doses of medicine for a patient. >> kroft: what would happen to me if i drank one of these? >> keber: you would have a very long but mellow afternoon. ( laughter ) >> kroft: keber and his partners have poured a million dollars into this business, and have also pioneered edible products and capsules they say contain all of the medicinal benefits of marijuana, but without the high. what's your business plan? >> keber: so, our plan, you know, and i'm... >> kroft: ...long-term and short-term. >> keber: sure, the long-term plan for this business, for dixie elixirs and edibles, as i've never been really shy to share, is ultimately to sell it. i truly believe that whether it's big alcohol, big tobacco or big pharma, a company like one of those is going to look very, very closely at medical cannabis. it's about a $2 billion market in 2012, growing to just under $9 billion in 2016.

so you're seeing hockey-stick growth. and i think companies like dixie are well positioned to be acquired as the industry develops. >> kroft: it's a risky proposition. the industry requires a big capital investment and the medical marijuana marketplace is already saturated. but matt cook, who wrote the rule book for all this and is now a consultant to the medical marijuana industry, says it's helped pull denver out of the recession, occupying once vacant retail and industrial space, providing thousands of jobs and new revenue for the state of colorado. what's the economic impact been? >> cook: it's huge. there's over a million square feet of leased space in the denver area. look at all the electrical contractors, the hvac contractors, a number of ancillary businesses. it's huge. tax revenues exceeded... i believe the last number i heard was in excess of $20 million.

>> kroft: but in spite of all the euphoria, there is a cloud hanging over the cannabis industry in colorado, and it's not marijuana smoke. it's the federal controlled substances act, which still lists marijuana as a schedule one drug, every bit as dangerous as heroin, with no medical benefit. and the justice department is not happy with the wide-scale commercialization of colorado cannabis. sam kamin is a law professor at the university of denver, and one of the reigning experts on the subject. in colorado, you can grow it if you're licensed, and you can sell it if you're licensed to people who have a card to buy it. >> sam kamin: yes, but... >> kroft: and all of those people are violating federal law. >> kamin: exactly. and that's the really strange thing is that we have this, you know, sort of hundreds of dispensaries servicing as many as 100,000 people, and every transaction that occurs is a federal crime, and every... all the manufacturing of the product, from the growing of it to the making of the products and everything else. all of those are serious federal crimes.

>> kroft: even though the state of colorado has passed a constitutional amendment allowing it. >> kamin: exactly. the federal government sees it as a serious crime. they say, "we know that california and 16 other states, the district of columbia, we know you guys think it's medicine. it's not. we hear that you want to legalize it. you can't. we can't make you undo your statutes, but we can sure come in and prosecute your citizens that are violating federal law." >> kroft: but they haven't. >> kamin: but they haven't. >> kroft: and there's a reason for that-- some might call it the triumph of the marketplace. the federal government doesn't have enough manpower to shut down the medical marijuana business in colorado or prosecute all the purveyors and patients. and the voters don't want it. boulder county district attorney stan garnett says it's virtually impossible to impanel a jury on a marijuana case here, let alone get a conviction. >> stan garnett: what we deal with is what prosecutors call jury nullification, where juries say, "i know what the law is,

but i'm not going to follow it." this community has made it very clear that criminal enforcement of marijuana is not something they want me to spend any time on. >> kroft: it is really an issue here? >> garnett: it's really not an issue. >> kroft: and that is, more or less, the position of justice department in washington. deputy attorney general james cole has told u.s. attorneys not to waste resources prosecuting patients or caregivers that are in clear compliance with state medical marijuana laws. >> james cole: our focus is really on keeping it away from children. our focus is keeping it out of the hands of organized crime. our focus is making sure that people aren't, through marijuana dispensaries, using it as a pretext to do large-scale interstate drug dealing. these are the areas where we're really trying to focus. >> kroft: so the message is, if you're licensed in the state of colorado and you follow the law, then you should be okay. >> cole: each case is going to rise and fall on its own unique facts.

any of that is still in violation of the controlled substances act of the federal law. we're not interested in bothering people who are sick and are using it on the recommendation of a doctor. we are concerned with people who are using it as a pretext to become large-scale drug dealers. >> kroft: so it sounds like the federal government is tolerating it. >> kamin: it is tolerating it. and at the same time is, below the surface, trying to make it very difficult for these folks. it's doing it through banking regulations. if you talk to dispensary owners, one of the things that they will lament is, no one will do business with us. >> kroft: the justice department has let it be known if financial institutions do business with medical marijuana centers, they could be at risk for civil or criminal prosecution under the controlled substances act or federal money laundering statutes. it's made it difficult, if not impossible, for dispensaries to get loans, open company bank accounts, or process patients' credit cards. >> kamin: it can't stay like this.

either we have to have settled expectations that this is a federal crime, the federal government's not going to tolerate it, or the federal government is going to let states like colorado regulate it, tax it, experiment with it. to have it exist in both worlds simultaneously is unsustainable. we can't have a multi-million- dollar industry built on criminal conduct. >> kroft: just a few weeks ago, the federal government announced that it would allow colorado to live in its own little world. after the states' voters defied federal law and approved the recreational use of marijuana last november, the justice department finally said it would not sue to stop it, nor will it make enforcing marijuana laws a priority in states that legalize and regulate it. recreational sales in colorado are scheduled to begin january 1, 2014. >> go to 60minutesovertime.com for more on medical marijuana and for john miller's interview with the briefer.

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