>> ririjua. itit'shehe mt popular illicit drug in america and d a muibillion dollar industry.. >> these cartels w wilststopt ththg in furtherance of ththe mighty dollar. >> you'll never r gus s whe they're e owowinit. > don't think a lot of f th public realizes these peopoplere herere >>hehe's a lot of heat comining right out of therere >> could it be in yoyour neighborhood?? >> wouldldeoeoplbe surprised to knknowhahat eir next door nehbor could be a grower? >> not anymore. plus -- medical marijuana recommmmentition > se call it a wonder drug. >> it was the only thing t tha alleviated any of mymyymympts. a battle brewing in californ. >> iis the wild west right now. >>his man could face the rest of his lifin prison. what happens if charlesynch is wrong. >> i'll lose everything if they ta me to jail that day. >> why some say majuana laws aren't working.

>> the prohibition of marijua is much more harmful to e user and society than the actual use of marijuana. >> marijua -- 100 million americans have tri it and, yet, it remainone of the most controversial drugs. fectively outlawed in 1937, it's become a multibli dollar industry, with steady mand and no shortage of supply. in fac sometimes you needn't look any further than the ho next door to find it grong. 7:30 in the morning, miami, florida. agents of the dr enforcement agency, dea, andice gather in a parkingot to get briefed

on the day's mission. >> going tgo to 128 -- >> the plan? to hit a lisof homes they suspect are marijuana grow houses. >> the registered ner doesn't live at this address but that' where delivered it to. >>hey had no idea what or whom they'll find. >> anybody got any questio? get your guns. every scenario we approach with the same amount of ty because we don'tnow who's on the other side of thdoor. >> while much of the city is still waking up, the ants drive ten carseep onto quiet, suburban seets wre they say secret grow houses blend in with the house xt door. >> this is a nice nehborhood. nice-looking homes, cent backyards. would people bsurprised to know that there are grower-- their next dr neighbor could be a gwer? >> not anymore. this used to be unmmon yrs ago but now it's quite common. >> police! >> tony anjali says growhouses,

while not a w phenom, are ineasing in size and scope. and the typil indo grow they see, about 10o 150 lants, is a multimillionollar operation. eachlant yields about a pound of marijuana wortht least $3,500 on the mii streets and can be harvested three to four times a year. >> frida unquestionably is the nation's capital for gro houses. on the b this year we have over 700 growersnd we're looking at 1,000 by the end of thyear. >> while marijuanaenerally has a reputation aa mild drug, its illegal cultivation angele says is serio business, oftentimes involving organizecrime. case in point. in 2006 south florida police bust a huge marijuana gring operation in the unassing suburb of rt st.ucie, florida, invving 59 houses in all. >> what sets thivestigation apart from so many other gro

houses that we encounter was t breadth, t level of organition, and the degree of sophisticaon. >> the operaon was masterminded and financeby a nejersey business that recruitemostly cuban immigrants witan irresistible sales pitc-- live in a new home a expenses paid. just one catch. >>nder the relocati package, each homeowner agreed to maintain a grow house for a minimum of two years, afte which the homeownerad the right toell thehouse if he so wished and split the gain 50/50. >> t grower also got a quarter share of the pts. some houses earning up t$5 llion worth of pot a year. 35 suspects were brought ion federadrug charges and those convictefaced as much as 20 to 40 yrs in prison. >> will you gecalls sometimes from people in the neighboood? >> yes. quite ofteneighbors see dierent things ound the

ighborhood, become suspicious and call our hotli >> but on this day the dea i working tips from informants and her sources doing what's own as knock and talks -- searches which require t owner's consen >> is that a successful path? will people actuallyet you me into their house if they're growing stuff inside. >> quite often, yes. >>lly. >>ou'd be surprised. >> why? >> a lot of times ople a cooperative with law enforcement,ore so than any other reon i believe that they think the, you kno they know we're on to them andhey sa well, yoknow. you've got me. come on in. >> outside, if no one's hohe agents look for certain telltale signs. spikes in electricity,xtra air conditioning units, d homes at don't have that lived-i look. after a few minutes'earch agents rule outhis house. >> it was clean. therwas nothing there. >> but tards the end of the day, the agents think th may have something. >> rht now we're just waiting on the k-9 to e if he can detectnything. the dog's traid to detect the

smelof marijuana. he's the bestool we have to detecthat. >> dea agenteannette moran says she becamsuspicious during the search as the owner shes them room to room. >> i've ner seen anybody go throh house that quickly opening doors. every dr must have been closed and thing we went from one end of the house to thother three seconds fl. >> once inside t bathroom moran's ained ears perk up. >> we could hear blowers. if you look in the batooms there's no blor tached. you n see all the drywall that's been torn down to help t the grow up. >> the giveaway? a ladder in a clothes closet with a tile in the ceiling rved o. once they climbed the ladder and moved the ceilintile, it leads to an attithat leads to another tiny room. in it, a marijuana grow. but not the size there excting. >> this is a relively small indoor grow, 11 plants, e about ten inches ta foot tall.

they're a little more tu but st getting started. >> angele says even is small grow can yie a surprising amount of money. >> these little plants are deceiving righnow. these are 11 plas. oncehey grow to maturity they will yield in less than ree months 11 pounds of marijuan rth over $50,000. >> there are those who would say, look. you're putting all this fort into this. y don't you concentrate on the bigger drugs -- cocaine, hoin, methamphetamine,rescription pills? is this a od use of time and resources for the de >> this is an excellent use of dea resos. we'rtaeting everything. all e drugs you just ntioned. this iue is ry important to us >> most ople would say, hey look. it'sarijuana. what's the b dl? >> is re potent now than ever so e e of the former arguments about itit being mild dr that everybody uses, , those days are over. angelsays controlled conditionsnsnd sopsticated growowg techques have made marijua stronger and, thereforor more ngerous.

the government cononsiderst a gateway to m me seris drugs anspends millions of dolollars a year on marijuana law w enforcement.t. o marijuana groups argrgue that in t the cas of more potent pot users just their intake and smoke leless andhey say there is no evidence that mararijuana lds to harr drugs. as for the govovernment'war on majuana, they say it's expensivive and hahad little efct on the millions of f users. a drugar raging in our national parks andnd forests >> kept thinkingng if i rn my back i'm g gng to t a bullet in the back my head. brbrp my biggest p ps really in my y lower back.

feels kind o of like kves. aleve woalday on my backckn. ly two aleve liquid gels can stop pain all y.y. at would take twice as manany advil or ibuprofofen. aleve allows me through my work

folks from all across the country. howdy! of all shapes and sizes. saving time by comparing our progressive directories to those of other top companies. and saving money with our discounts and customized policies. ah! thanks for dropping in! maybe it's time you visited progressive.com. if you like saving money, you'll fit right in. thank you, thank you very much. you're welcome uh-huh! very much. savings everyone can enjoy -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. my t thohthtas, this is a stupid way to die,e,n n thmiddle t theevada desert over mamajuana.

>> october, 200808. three biologists were survrveyg streres s anterrain in a remote papartf northern nevada. > he'e'our foot prints right here. >> they walkeded teeeeiles to a canyon w wn n sothing amidst the grgrayndnd bwn desert stood out. >> there wasas alala that just caughtht matatntion. it was extrereme g gre, five or six feet tall, and looood d ju out of place. >> onene oououco-workers said is is what i think it is?s? we're like yeah.h. it looks likikmamariana. thatat w whait is. > t men, two of whom wished totoememaiunidentified, thought ttttlef it but a few feet fufuher down they saw anotothe plant. >> he said it lookoklilikehat wacucuand placed there by somebody. then i got kind of a knonot m m ststomh h anthought, something's not right. >> sudedenl oo armed n n let up fm behind sage brush. it was right here thahaththe two memen pppp up a little to ouleft over here.

>> they didn't s say w wd, which mamadee e ev more frightened. i could tetellmmmmiately that eyey we hispanic. > iropped my walking stick, which is right herere. we put o ouranan in the air. we started s sayg g nono, no, d started speaking spanishsh a tellining ememho we were. >> seconds later, , a irirman named d to e emeed with a rifle. he spoke to them in enenglh.h. h hcontinued to interrogagate us, ask us who we e rere, y we rere tre. i kept thinkining,f f turn my baback'm'm gng to get a bullet in the back of my head. . >> afafteenen minutes of t ten negotiating, therowers let the ololists go. >> here's a sasamp o of e black trtrs s th brought the plants t in. the next day when lawaw enforcrcemt t de in the growers were gone. th l lt behind everything ---- shoes, food, clothes, , trh,h,nd 800 marijuanana anantsorth an esestitete$5 million. a relalavevelymall grow compared toto tsese sn in the thousands california, washington, a and ororeg areas. while facece-tfafa encounters with illegal growersrsreren'

mmmmonthe situation represenen an alarmrmintrtren armed and dangerououdrdrug trtrficking organizations s haharvtitingarijuana on public lands and reretete aas of the countrtry'nanatial parks and forests. > is a big problem and seses to be gettttinwowoe. >> mark purdle is a spspecl l agenent c chae with the bureau ofof ld d nagement in nevada. >> we hehearllll t news reports abouout e e ug wars going on on thboboer right now, the murders and shootingngs d d everything a and d don think a lot of the public realizizeshaha these people a areerere. >>n fact, the office of national drug control l pocycy esestites 65% of the marijuana grown in thehe u. . isrown on public l lan.. the vast majority by m mexanan cartels. eyey gw here because it's gotten tougherer tsmsmuge marijuana acrorossheheorder. >> somebody came u uwiwithhe idea we'll s smulelen our people to grow the marijuanana d d it cu down a lot of the logisticics.

soso n t ty grow it and they se it right here. >> usually men tenenngng tthe fields camp p ounene to the grow for r reree four months at a titi. >> you can see t ty y ha coffee back here, sugar, a lolot susuppeses all the staplele these inindidudus were staying he f f quite a long time. >> in addiditi t tfood and supplili, , th typically haul in miles of hoses t to t t elaborate irrigationonysyste. >> the wataterreresse that can builild o on ese, pretty prpresve. it's a good exexame e w much ter these guys are usisi o out t thereeks. > ty use tarps to camouflfle their acactityty. >> this here was t theaiain ococsing area. when we first got here thehese tatas s we all -- it was almost like an enclosed s sucuctu. mamayb20 by 35-foot structurur almost imposossie e see from therer >> o onclalaenforcement spots ththe elds, the growers hear the licopters and run.

the occasionalal aesesrarely leleadtoto t top guns. >> unfortunately, most o of e e the titime t the arreses are lolevel garden workers that t don't really know w anhihing they don't know who o thbibi bosses arere. >> but rafael l yeyes ows all too well w whohohoseig bosses are. >> the most ruthless, vlelent individualalanand/ organizations inheheorld today. ththe e caels will do anything, will stop at nothing i in furtherance of the almlmhthty dollar. >> reyes says mamajujuanis the cartels' casash w w --heap to grgr a andxtremely profitable. >> t therurue d tried method of making money has alwlwaybebe marijuanana. it's what allolowsheheto further their bases of opepetitioninto other drugug f forxample, cocaine,e, hoioin, methamphetamine.e. they're all fueled by the e prpreeeedsenerated through marijuana. >> and if f mecacan rtels are our biggest foreigign pppper, thth the united states cononsur is theheirumumr one customer.

> tt t sual consumer doesn't alize what he or she i is coriribung to indirectly. our guys in mexico are figightg a war. co are being killed day in a and y out. police officers ththatrere bng kidnapped, torortud,d, a murdrder t tfurther intimidate and break the e llll othe people and of broththerffffics. >> these mexican drug cartrtel how mumuchononeyre we talking about conservavavevely >> in n thbibiions and billions dollars. e eacyear. >> each h ye. . >> if you'rere slilingt on the street how m mucwowod this amount of marijuana brbrg?g? in the northeast region that'll generate appppromamaly abt t $1,000. >> t ts s onpackage. >> t thaononpackage. when youou csisir the fact that to produce that was s ju a a upupleundred dollars -- >> it's s anmamazi profit mamainin. >> the dea says ththcacarts are extremely ininveivivwhen it comemetoto ws to keep those profits and reach h thr r u. customers.s. not t on a arehey operating on puic lands but they're ilding elaborate tunnene t tha extendnd uererath the border for most a half mile. from your basic hole i iththe

grgrou to now highly sophisticacad d tuels that have lighting systems in n itoxoxen, railroad trackck r rlroad tracks? >> railroad tracac. >> it's an endndssss cle of drugs, money, and viololen.. one that a aararijna policy reform lobby says cocod d be stpeped its tracks if marijuana a rere lalized, taxed, and regulated here - -- keke cocoho >> right n nown n cafornia you don't see drug cararte f fro mexico setetngng uand growing grapes. they're not growing g greseso make wine to s sl l itecause it's a a rululed market. the profit margin'n's lalatily low because e its s a gulated -- and someonone o o nts to grow grapap c canust get a license anando it. t thearijuana policy project insists marijuana is much h sar than alcohol a andobobac and should be treated in much ththe same way. cartels, they say, w wou h he little incenenti t tbe here if there'e'nono mey to be made. >> it makes perfecect nsnsto end e marijuana prohibition wewe'v

seseenn the books since 1937. yes, there will be p proemems th marijuananususe. yes, some people wilill ususe . bubut e e ohibition of marijuana much more harmful to o thususer d d soety than the actual use of marijuanana. >> o o a add benefit according to the marijuanana picicproject, if prohibition endeded a mamajujuanwere taxed and gugulad, they estimate the combined savings and revevens s could be somomhehereetween $14 billion and $40 billioioa a ye. marijuanana m micine. >> it was the only tng that alleviated my mpmpto.

in 2008,8, t u u. spent more thanan $ m mlion on marijuana eradicationsns, izizinsome 4.6 million plants on pupubl l lds onone. aside from the public sasafe zazardthey say illegal rijuana grows endangerer wililifend the environment. among the fertilizer andnd fd d

ththe eaeaare littered with animal r remnsns. > fndndhis in the cultivation site, , a arar p cut at the wrist and one ofof t d digs has been cut offff. >> the government doesn't t ha enough resources t tclcleaup the me. >> bacacararou the perimeter. > sththeyely on volunteer grpspsike the high sierra trail crew months after this s 120000 pnt grow was fououndn n seoia nationonalorores the crew flies ba t to ul out the trash. >> the mess is praractalal untouched. >> herere'whwh's left of some fo o oa rifle. >> theheeaeam scovers multiple opope tanks. >> these are a major h hazd.d. if a fire was to statartn n is arar, an unsuspecting firere cw coululd lklk io the path of soththg that would either r explodode p pentially shoot flflam 15 or 20 feet away. >> they fifindesestides and chemicals, some thatat he e be ouawaw in the united states.s.

>> we don't know, whwhatrere t ngng-tm effects of these chchemals being washed into o r water r syemem, these go into the creeks that feed t thetrtrms that feeeed e e las that we recreate in. a lot of p pplple,unters, fishers, camper men, a are ingesting these peststiceses > the tam aveverass 12 t to grow sites aear and he jt t been handed d 16momore >> for eveveryitite ey find there are four they dodon'fifi. ththerarare obably another 500 out here that nobody eveven owow about. >> for himim, ririana's not a lilitil issue. it's a personal l on >> i grerew i ithe mountains. i i lo the mountains. to see this reallyly rululseme. >> medicalal mijijna, a whole newoworlin california, where yocan buy it in ice creaea yocan buy it in ice creaea cold drinks, and cakeses. ♪

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i'mm cristina brown. he's's wt's happeneng.g. revererendl l arpton r rembeber the kingngff pop at a church

service in l losngeles this morning. arpton has been meeeeti th michael l ckcksos family in l.l. > and the monorail walt snsn world is out o oservice after r tw trains collided sundy night. one of the driverers was killedd five pssssenrs were treat a att the e enen e cause of this accidede i is under investigatatio now back to"al roker reporting." 13 statatehaha passed laws decriminalizizg g majuana for medical use,e, t no statates ke california, t only o o with more than 3 3 d disnsaries. plplac where people with doctors' r recmemendions can openly go to buy it. whilile gaganitions like the american college of phphysiaia arcalling for further researarch to numerous potential l didica uses for marijijua, , thfood and drug administration n ysys ihas no accepted medidil l vae. in the eyeyeofof t federal government, it remaiai i illal a anyorm. so how doeoes isis a play out in cacalirnia?

long considered d grndnd zo of e medical marijuana momoventnt. >> this is the fututur >> a aththe armacy, a dispensary in westwood, c calorora, the general m mager bill leahyhyaya the doors are opopen >> we don't t elel whave anythingng thihi or anything to bembarrassed about. >> here, with a dodooror's recommendationon, u u n buy medical mamajujuanor cannabis in just about any f fm m yolike, chocolate bars, cold d dris,s, enen llipops. >> there a arehrhrees on this particular chocolate c cak ththateaea there are three dosages of mededice e there. >> right. what would happen ifif sebebod ate this wholele, u u kn, piece cake? it's g gotivive ses of cannabis it. >>f they ate it all at o oe e they would be overer micicing. okokay?? ere have been zero deaths s causus b by nnibas. you cannot overdose.e.

you may sleep pretty w wll that ninigh y younow. >> hay holeleahsasa the pharmac dodoest make a pfit, and thatat itides by stricttatate ws, buying from designateded grower an selling onlyly tohoho with a dodoct's'secommendation. ## >> there is a a t t of documentation.n. >> oh, yeah. erything has to be comometetel documented. if there is no d dumumention or anhihi is out of line or if f they don't'tavave california d. that's current, i d don even c ce e ifhey have it. ifif is s t current we don't let them in. >hat's the difference b beten the stuff you buy on thehe seeee and d thmamariana or cannabis u buy in here? >> eveveryininwe have here is ornic. alofofur care givers that supply the cannabis fofor us ha not added any p pticides or added anythihi t to ange the valulue t t medicine. what you buy on the ststetet i hit t orisis >>ouou te what you get. >> you take whatat y g g. >>t a dispensary, customoms s can n pi a andhoose from a wide

varirietofofigh-grade marijuana >> they have t thepppptunity to open it t upndndet a sense of ththarara. >> now, that smelllls momostike a tea. >> accordidingo o ericans for safefe aeses there are more than 0,0,0 people in californiaia with a doctor's recommendadati for marijuana. >very doctor i talk to o th i asked about it, cocolilicaons, they said thatat'shehe bt thing to do. >> in a 2005 interviewew wh h "dateline's" s snene pllips, melilissetethedge, a breast cacanc s svivor, talks candidly about using medicacal ririana every y daduduri her chememhehera. t tre's the drug that youou take fororhehe pn, but that coconspapas you so you have to tatake the constipation drug, b at actually gives y didiarea, so you need a litttt diarrhea drug. insteaeaofof ting five or six of the prescriptions,s, iececid to go a n nururaloute and smoke marijuana.

wawas ing a lot of it athe titi f for my pain a and frr my symptoms, and theinute i didn't feel it, i ststopd.d. >> do you wowoy y atll that lking about this from m memedinanal andpoint might cocoage recreational use?? >> do i worry that thahawiwille abused? ye.. i mean, vicodidin'ababed. everything that brinin p pai rereli i iabused. budoes that mean, because vicodin is abused do thehey epep it away frfromeoeopl . ey prescribe it. puput e laws on it. esesibe it. >t't's argument that's gagaing ground across the country bubut a a pce like california where disispeararie veverte in magazines, accessss toto mijijua is easier than ever. >> medical marijuana cocommdations to have this a a opposed d p phaaceuticals and ththat w w he wants to make sure everyone has access s t theneed it. >> it's a whole nenew dudust that caters s t theery sick and

people looking to geget ghgh lelegay. >> there's a lot of rerecrtition ususs who have a license t the got from a doctor becacausththe dodocts s th give medical rijuana evaluations ththeyalall it, i don't know i if eyey'r rnrng anybody away. now i have a licensese tt t sa i can smokokpopot. no one here has thatat noin idaho. but you should. >> comedian and marijuanus do benson stars in "super high me," aov that chronicles his pot smoking for 30 straight days. >> i agree that if you feel like it helps you in yo life and makes you el better, whether it's anxiety or depression or, you know, you just like it, i don't see why you shldn't have cess to it. >> when it ce to defining who ould have access to it, proposion 215, the 1996 ballot initiative that decriminalized

medical marijuana california purposely left things vague. >> it list approximately ten condions but then it said or any condion agreed upon by the physician and the paent where cannabis coulde helpful. so that pretty much leaving it between the doctor and the patient,hich is where it longs. >> dr. alan frankel practid intern medicine for 26 years before dedicating 80% ofis practice to medical marijuana. inver two years, he says, he saw 3,400 patients. the age age? osto 50. >> some of these pients are, you know, ceos, there's noone demographic. i an, we have all the data. it's from everywhere, every income group, every ucion level. >> they come thim with a wide range of ailments fromancer anhiv to chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiet >> they come in and sometimes they just can't believe this is really happening. and at it's legal. works. patien come in, oh, i'm a little better. i appreciate it. it's like, this hachanged my

life. >> what most people ner realized, heay is that there are two different strains of medical majuana that work to trdifferent conditions. >> now with the dispensing system we're able get sativa and indicas and lleople which to uset which time. >> whilerankel acknowledges there are legal substitutes that do similar things, he says many people prefer pot's prictable side effec to prescription dications. >> i thinkost people agree if nothing else, cannabis is extremely safe. if somebody comes inith mnia, to try using cannabis before they gond get sleeping pills, i think it's completely reasonab. >> frankel says patients don't nessarily need to smoke marijuana. in fac it's better if they don't. >> it's early not the ultimate way to use it. >>e commends pinschers that

were once ailable in the 1800s over the counter. >> you would spray it into your mouth, two spritze and the fectabout two hours. >> the are also strips to put under your tongues and capsules as well. frankel lieves the centuries old medicine will one day beme pted treatment in the futu not only because of wide-ranging benefits but also because it keeps health carcosts low. but the government view codn't be more differt. eyay marijuana's harmful a the dispensari that sell it open up a can of wms for law forcement. >> we've seen so many of these, from dispensarie issuing fliers at high schools handingout fr sles to kdso come and trtheir products. but these dispensies are definitely not just dispsing marijuana unr medical means. tre are people who have abused the system whether they're phmacy operators or patits. >> correct. >> do you want tho pple run out? absolutely. absolutely.

this is serious busiss. th is medicine. this is not a me. >> leahy says the pharcy sells in limited quantities to prent resa on the streets. and one other ing. dispensaries in californ pay taxes. while no ect data exists, last year the stat board o equalization says dispensaries generad at least $11.4 million in sales tax. the board acknowledges t actual number is probably much hier. but despite many dispensaries complying with state guidenes, bung, selling, cultivati, or being inossession of marijuana for any reason is stila federal crime. >> people ne to realize there's no lal m for anyone to obta marijuana. >> theea says it doesn't go ter patients or doctors but theytarget dispensaries, what they say can be a magnet r crime and illegal drug traffickers. >> we need to look at whs

suing these individuals. where's the mariana coming from? we're looking at dispensars who are king huge amounts of moy that may being laundered throh dient means. weook at all those different aspects and deteine who's the most egregus of those and try to target those individuals first. >> whyon't you get the rl criminals? >> get the heroin dealers. >> but protestors beeve the degoes after dispensaries who make the most noise. >> ty tahe money. they take the medici. they don actually arrest ybody. sossentially this is harassment. >> t u.s. supreme court says when t two laws conflict, federal law trumps state law and the dea says ty'll continue to uphold feder law >> we definitely believe we' having an impact b because there are soany here in los angeles it is a difficult sk. f bill leahy, whose west hollywood ste was raided in 2007, trying to operate a legitimate businesin such murky territory is fficult,

but worth the risk. >>re you worried each day about the dea cong in to shut you wn? >> every day wopen those doors practice civil disobedience. every day. does it worry ? sure. >> they put me othe ground there with a gun to my head. >> t feds raid his dispensary and his home. the clock is tickg the 72 ur sale is on. with zero pcent apr for 72 months on select '09 chevy models including impala. with an epa estimated 29 mpg highway. at's better than toyota avalon. and now get zero pcent apr for 72 monthson any impalwith an average finance savings of over $,200. buthurry, time is runningout. the 72 hour le emonday. see your local chevy dealer. rsand..."that's just gonna be four dollars." prescription a i was told... i said, "you're jokiking." amandai owandra personalally. ananshe was only able to affddaa a time.

sandrasome of mymy medatatn was $100 for one pscription. amandabut now, she's ae e to get a whole month'ss generic prescription f for $4. amandadashe'also able to get a three-moh supply for just $10.0. sasandrai ju want to say thank u,rom the bottom of my het. vovo: save money. live better. walmar

> > esting, brother. sh o our pce down. >> july 25th, , 2007. thdea raids ten medical marijuana dispensaries througugut los angeles. do they do this? they bust the vending maine? oh, man.

>> theame day city leaders ca for an end to the dea's crackdow >> oururncil people, our officials are voting tppt city medical marijuana tits and it's really, really impoportant that the dea n gagainst the will of f e peop that voted this in. >or to the raids the dea sends letters to more th 100 lalords of dispensary tetenants warning them that they risk proper szure and possible imprisonmentnt. >> our local government condemned the dedea's actis for threateneng landrds of medical nnnnis zprensryes tday and also said ththat th don't want the lapdcooperating with the a,hat the lapd h other ime they need t to be looking after and thatat medalannabis isis not a cme. >> it's a messy situion at contininually ays out across lilirnia. >> it's crazy bebecae e it legal to open up a a dpepeary.

local law enforcemenent esesn' you know, get volv. >> we know nothing about t operation insi.. wee just here for crowd control. >> the feds me in and bust the pleses. >s the wild west right now w in californinia. >> to add to the confusion, it's not only the federal law that nflicts with state law. in california,ocal laws and tolerance for dispensaries vary from county to county and city city. 2007 the controversy arrived in full fce the town of morro bay, cifornia. a year earlier charlesynch, a foer software engineer, had opened a dispeary called centracoast compassionate ca givers. the only medical maruana facili within 100 miles. for years, charles says, he suffered from debilitang migrai headaches and drove ng distances for the drug. >> i decided we kind of needed one in our local area not just for me but forur patients or

the patients in our . >> charles' dispsary had the approval of the local city counciand the town mayor, janice peters. >> it was ry discreet. anyone passing by ulhardly know it was ther >> lynch was asked to joinhe chamr of commerce and for a ti business ran smoothly >> you felt you we dng everything by the book according to state law? >> oh, yes i felt definitely so. >> mayor peters agreed that lynch ran ght ship and she ver had a problem. >> i personally went around to every sile business around the dispensary, gavehem my card, said call the police, o, but please call me if anything concerns you or upsets you aut this busess. and i never hasingle call in the almo year that they were there. >>ut the local sheriff investigat the dispensary and says se community members did concerns. >> they didn't like the fact that tre were people who from alappearces did not give any signs of having anrious illnesses so they felt there w

outward abuse ofhat the law intended. >> but one of chles' patients, owen beck, was 17 when he came to charles' diensary with his da >> vited literally four mes a day. >> owen beck was diagnosed wh bone cancer his seni year of high schooand ben six rounds of rigorchemotherapy. >>t's just terrible, terrible, disgusting feeling all the time. they tried to give me dication foit, pain killers and all kinds oftu but nothing really worked. >> owen says he codn't keep e pills down. his doctor recomnded mical marijuana and talked about it with s dad. >> he was very open to it. ju put all political views aside and you know, this is my son and needs to get better. i think should try anything that's goingo rk. >> owen says he'd smoke four times a day and noticed the change immedialy. >> it wathe only thing that alleviated my syto. the nausea wou go away. i might be able to eat a sll meal, get nutritio

it would rel me. >> a short time lar owen said medical marijuana became eve more of a necessity en he had toave his leg amputated. >> the phantom pains are t worse. it feels like ils are being nailed io your entire leg, the worst experice evein my life. but e marijuana did numb the pain a lot. >> back in morro bay, medil marijuana would soon bome temporarily ailable. early one morning in 2007 charles called uhis seetary at the disnsy to tell her he was running late. >> she was frantic. she was tellinme, charlie, they're here. i says what? authorities arrested one of charles' employees for selng marijuana tondndercor police agents miles from the dispensary, something charles sa he knew nothing about. seconds lar, charles heard banginat his front door. >> the guyays, search warrant. op up!

sech warrant! my heart dropped and started pounding. they said, open the or or we'r going to b itdown! yoknow, so i oned the door and about 15 guys with machine guns, llet-proof vests came barreling in throughy door. they put me on the ground with gun to my head. >> theea was banging on your door at the same time they were raiding your dispensy? >> it was a simultaneous rai >> deputies carried boxes of eviden out of the dispensary around 2:3is afternoon. the dea would not mment on what w inside them. >> back at charles' house, he was hand a search warrant. well, actually after i read the search wnt i kind of felt like they were hopi to find a big, huge gw operation in my house so i found a ltle bit ofelief there. >> t dea walked away with charles' computer, his personal medical marijuana supply, an $27,000 he had in thhouse. t charles wasn't arresteand

li many other dispensaries raided before, hreopened a short time later. in hindsight dyothink maybe would have been better if you had just shut down? >> well, actually, felt like i had a lot of peoe depending on me. there was definitely a question in my minwhether i should reopen and i went to th city attorney of mro bay. he td me that, you know, it was okay for mto reopen. >> the reopening was short lived. landlord and told him rked s having his property seized and so charles was forced to close his dispsary for good. >> you figured tt's it. you're d >> rig. the dispensary was closed. i was looking for a new job, n prect. >> just asharles was looking foa fresh start, the dea and local sherifcame knocking n. >> they told me to step outsid told me i waunder arrest for, you kn, distribution of

mariana the federal level. >> i know yore a little mariana on the federal level. >> i know you're a little nervous right now. it's going to be oka >> okay. >> charles was charg with cultivating and nspiracy to distrite marijuana, operating a drug premises, and selli to minors. his family putp $40000 in bail while he awaited trl in an ankle bracelet r the next nine months. the charges against you, yo know, e government brings, are etty serious. that you sold marijuana to 250 minors, you de $2.1 million in than a year. >> actually, can i addresshose one at a time as you go? >> okay. >> my rules fr the city were 18 or older unless accomnied by a parent. okay? but undefederal law i found out that anybody under 21 is considered a minor. d they used that law against me tmake it sound like i wadown on the streets in marijuana to minors.rd sling

>> as for the $2.1 milon? charles doesn't deny that might have been his gross procee from t business but he says he never profited from hi dispensary which would he ban violation oftate law. he says the $2.1 million number dn't account for expenses like paying for t marijuana, payroll, and rent. but the nuer of customers, particularly young peoe buying marijuana, didt sit right with the local sheriff. >> this county h aopulation of about 263,000 people. had over 2,000 individuals that were going to this facity under the auspices of needing medicinal marijuana. we had over 270 minors, individuals under the age of 21. those large numbers based on our population jusseemed to be out of whack. >>t charles' trial, owen beck now in remissionas a character

witness but his testimony wa cut shorwhen he mentioned medical marijuana. the judge had ruled such evidencerrelevant under feral law. >> they dn't allow us to talk abt the california state laws that allowed me to do is. they didn't allow us to talk about my business linse or the 18 or older stuff. actually they dn't let us talk about a lot of thing >> do you el like you got a ir trial? >> well, i d't think there was anything fair out federal court. >> after a two-weetrial, the jury reached a verdict. >> i just couldn believe it. >> crles lynch was found guilty on all unts. >> t mority of us felt like he was a nice man th good intentions who didn't stay with the parameters of the federal law. >> charlesed five to 85 years in prison. >> they can take me away in cuffs ght then and there. my car wilbeitting in the

parking lot. my house will be, you kn, the way i leftt. i'll lose everything if they take mto jail that day. >> suppoers rallied. >>hat happened to charles lynch is wrong. >> as chles lynch faces a eep prison sentence. female announcer ] sometimes, you can getet so much out of so little.. e e me is true wiwithath tissue too. introducucgg new charmin ultra a so.. itits w ultra soft design is softer than beforore. and it has so much a aororbey, you can n us7 7 shts vs. 28 ofhe leading value brand. soououfamily can get re mileage out of lessss [ hoho h hon ] nechchmin ultra soft. america's softest baththisissu

anyou everybody for being here. >> it's the fall of 2008. >> free arlie lynch! >> and charlesynch is weeks away from sentencingor selling maana at his dispensary in morro bay, califora. >> right on. than, man. thank you here at a medical rijuana expo, he's among supporters. >> i wisu well. >> appcie it.

>> and in front of t federal courthou -- >> if they canake charles lynch ey can take anyone standing in this crowd so have to take atand. we need another dain court, a fair d in court. we need a new trial for charles lynch. >> i've never beenn activist or notng like that. but is great to see people making signs and cnting. th was dinitely a great day for me. >> but crles says the last few hs have taken their toll. >> i'm about to lo my house. it's been diffult finding work. my financial situation is beyond bankruptcy. as charles nervously awaits his fate, he sees glimmer of hope, a chan of administration. >> i'md of optimistic that, u know, with the new president, hopefully, in t coming weeks and the coming nths tt there may be a licy change at the federal level regaing states' rights. barack obama has admitted trying and inhaling majuana in

the st. >> i did. it'sot something i'm proud of. it was a mistake as a yog man but i never derstood that line, e point was to inhale. that washe point. >> durinthe campaign candidate barack obamaaid that federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries would note a high priorityn his ministration. he ao said that when it comes to medical marijuana, heould defer to stateas long as it's based on mical research that it benefits patients and that it's controlled properly. buno matter what the government'siew, it may take more than a change of policy to chan people's minds about marijuana.

>> i think pot is stilillega just because it's always bn illegal. like it's hard to turneople around tthe notion of, this thing that always been wrong, now 've decided it's okay or it's okay for some people. like it just gets zzy. >> there's aot of misinformation out there about at marijuana's effects and impact on ousociety are. to get out there that 'reeds trying to geout there is, one, that mijuana continues to be a dangerous substance and we're trying to make o community safer. >> most people really don't get it unt it hits home and then they become an advocate. that's true with everying. then all of a dden they're likewow. a light bulbes on. and the ghbulb needs to come on throughout the country. >> that's all for this edion of "al roker reporting."