Weed Country (2013) s01e01 Episode Script
Welcome to the Garden
1 Narrator: Deep in the heart of the Northern California mountains, marijuana growing season is under way.
They're growing in your front yard.
Well, yeah.
Mike B.
: There's nothing more American than a man taking his piece of ground and producing a product that people want.
Narrator: This is the Emerald Triangle.
I mean, look at the size of that.
That looks like an orange orchard.
Narrator: Ground zero for a multi-billion-dollar marijuana industry, originally comprised of three counties covering 10,000 square miles.
It's now growing out of control, and rebels are staking their claim.
You can use those feet to walk off this property anytime you feel like it.
You get the [Bleep.]
off my land! They stand to make millions It's just a business that can't fail.
Narrator: Or be locked up for years.
[Siren wails.]
Uh-oh.
Winters: We have the medical marijuana laws that, for the people who are making profit off of it, we have to stop it.
You can haul one, you can haul 100.
I got one right on target.
Narrator: It's a decades-old battle between cops, dealers, and growers, using 21st-century science to make the most powerful weed on earth.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
Narrator: This is the story about America at war with itself.
Every time one of those plants falls, that's money that we don't get.
It is a problem at epidemic proportions.
Shotwell: Yeah, I'm breaking the law on TV.
I've got the target off to our left.
So what? This is weed country.
We will never stop this ever.
Narrator: It is one of the most forbidding, remote, and notorious places on earth.
Once confined to three small counties in Northern California, it is expanding every year in every direction.
Here, deep in the forest of what is called the Emerald Triangle, the marijuana growing season Mike B.
: Josh! 10 seconds! Is about to begin.
[Cellphone beeps.]
Here we go! I love this stuff.
Why was it so important to start moving the light back? I wanted to fool these plants into a schedule and a cycle that says "flower.
" I'm Mike Boutin.
My father was a police officer.
Mmm, I love the smell of that right there.
My brother's a police officer.
I was a jet-engine mechanic on F-4 phantoms in the Air Force.
I've owned my own trucks, hauled logs, been an ax man, and now I grow weed.
You know, we got a lot of plants to sync, so we'll go gather up Tawni and get busy.
Narrator: It's June 1st.
Mike and Tawni Boutin are moving their plants from their indoor greenhouses out into the open.
Over the next five months, an estimated $4.
5 billion worth of marijuana will be grown and harvested in the Emerald Triangle.
I got to tell you, Mrs.
Boutin, there are some of the nicest plants.
Growers all throughout the area are staking their claim.
Mike B.
: Tawni is my wife.
She loves marijuana the same as I do.
She's really the grower.
Tawni: These are my babies.
I love my girls.
I get really heartbroken when something happens to them.
You missed a couple spots.
Narrator: Growing marijuana is more than just syncing plants and keeping them watered.
Today's a big day 'cause today's like race day.
What we do today determines what we're gonna get in quantity at the end of the year, and then, of course, everything that goes wrong just comes out of our wages.
So you can't win the championship today, but you can lose it.
Narrator: Growers like Boutin can earn a year's salary in a single summer.
With that kind of reward comes huge risk.
Mike B.
: Planting marijuana outdoors in the full sun is putting a bull's-eye on your back.
Some of these counties have it in their head that marijuana's illegal, that's all there is to it.
Prove it to the judge.
So, one of the things that we're doing today by putting these plants in the ground we're hoisting the flag of civil disobedience.
This is gonna be out there for the D.
E.
A.
to see.
It's gonna be out there for the Sheriff's department to see.
It's gonna be out there for any marijuana thieves.
All the forces that could take us down are at play every day from today on.
[Gunshots.]
Narrator: In a separate corner of the Emerald Triangle, another marijuana season is just beginning.
Fall in! Matt Thomson is training his men in how to sneak up on and overtake illegal marijuana farms.
- Thomson: Ready, up.
- Up.
You know, a large part of the training we do early in the year is our tactical movements through the woods trying to be quiet, we're watching out for each other.
And it does pay off, and it's paid off for as many years as we've been doing this because we've never lost anybody, and that's why we do it.
We don't want to lose anybody.
Narrator: The members of the Jackson County SWAT team regularly encounter armed growers willing to protect their money and their crop.
Today, Thomson is training his men to stay alive.
How long did you guys hold up here before you moved in? - Man: Five minutes.
- Okay.
Narrator: For over half of his life, Thomson has been a major force in taking down pot growers all around the Emerald Triangle.
Do you guys want to run through it one more time? Right got your right.
[Gunshots.]
Thomson: Are we gonna save the world by doing what we're doing? No, we're not.
But on the flip side of that, if we can save one person from getting hooked on drugs or one person from smoking a bowl and getting out in a car, driving, and killing somebody, then it's all worth it.
The blood meal we do three cups, - right? - Yeah, that's three.
Three cups.
Narrator: For Nate Morris and his business partner, Eric Honour, day one of the growing season means starting from scratch with a bag of soil.
Let's start mixing.
Over the next few months, Nate's finely calibrated soil mixture will produce a very powerful strain of marijuana.
We call this mix we actually call it "the mix.
" The mix.
These ingredients are what bring out the full flavors, what produces the higher yield.
If we had intellectual property, it would be that soil.
My name is Nathaniel Morris.
I started growing pot when I was 14 years old.
At that point, I already knew I was a biology geek and I just applied my love of science to my love of growing pot.
That started me off as a mad scientist.
The science that we're doing here, you know never been done before.
Narrator: Nate believes his marijuana has the power to relieve several ailments.
When you say cannabis is the cure for cancer, you sound like a [Bleep.]
idiot.
The fact is, medical cannabis is capable of sending cancerous tumors into remission.
Narrator: Nate plans to turn his weed into a medical game changer.
Morris: Any other flower that had these medical properties would be treated as the greatest discovery to happen in this century, and this one, you know it's a laugh line.
Narrator: In the eyes of the government, Nate is a felon committing a crime.
Somebody with over 100 plants is looking at 5 years.
If you got over 1,000 plants, you're looking at 40 years, which is just an insane punishment for a garden of flowers, but that's the way it is.
Woman: Piece of [Bleep.]
you get what you deserve! Narrator: But to some, medical marijuana is a scam.
Gilley: My name is Mike Gilley.
I'm commander of the marijuana team for Siskiyou County.
I've been doing law enforcement here for 27 years.
Narrator: On opening day of the marijuana season, Gilley's SWAT team is making a drug bust in a town called Weed, named after the timber tycoon Abner Weed.
The town of roughly 3,000 is quickly becoming known for its other namesake, and Gilley can't stand it.
Gilley: It makes me mad that we've taken this law, and now we are using it as a front to use an illegal substance.
It hits a raw nerve with me.
If I can be part of squashing that, then that makes me very happy.
Narrator: Gilley works for this guy.
I am Sheriff Jon Lopey, Sheriff coroner of Siskiyou County, California.
Narrator: Lopey is one of the most highly decorated cops in all of California.
But right now, he has his hands full.
Lopey: Siskiyou County, right now we're deluged with a lot of drug-related problems.
Provisions of law in California provide for the legal possession of marijuana for so-called medicinal purposes.
Many people are growing more marijuana than is permissible.
Kids are gaining a hold of it, and that's one of my big concerns.
It is a problem at epidemic proportions.
Narrator: Contrary to popular belief, marijuana was once grown legally in the United States until 1937, when it was federally outlawed.
Today, marijuana is a schedule-I drug, in the same category as heroin and crystal meth.
19 states have laws allowing for its medicinal use, and in 2012, both Washington and Colorado voters legalized the plant for recreation.
But since it's still a federal crime, for some there's no easy way to get it.
Mike B.
: And in my pan, in my sack Over the next few days, Mike Boutin will deliver 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana up and down the California coast.
Sack it.
Mike B.
: You have risks that range from law-enforcement intervention.
How much is legal to carry? Is it even legal to transport? Some jurisdictions will contend "no.
" You get pulled over by one of those, and you're going to jail.
Am I an outlaw now because I'm at odds with state law or federal law? I am an outlaw.
I've always been an outlaw, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong.
I'll see you in a few days, okay? - [Smooches.]
Be careful.
- Narrator: Every time Boutin goes on a run, he is leaving his home exposed to law enforcement raiding him, or worse.
Tawni: Things get weirder out here, you know? We just had a home-invasion robbery, and the people got murdered, you know, in the process of it, so it's not like it couldn't happen here.
I don't like the fact that it's just me and a dog here.
You know, a bullet puts my dog down, and then where am I? You know, so it's scary.
Come on, buddy.
Mike B.
: This game is just like the wildebeest migration.
You know, you got to cross the river with the crocodiles in it, and I'm trying to catch the crocodiles asleep right now.
Narrator: Not only does he have to avoid cops, Boutin must dodge bandits looking to steal his cash or crop.
Throughout the Emerald Triangle, they're known as rippers.
Mike B.
: Rippers they're just lazy mother[Bleep.]
that's what they are.
So, you can't be too careful about being ambushed.
People have been killed in this county over marijuana.
Here comes a car two of them.
Narrator: Every set of headlights is a potential threat.
Mike B.
: First one's nothing.
Second one looked like it could have been law enforcement.
That's what I don't like about this.
It's uncertainty.
Narrator: A vehicle abruptly pulls out of the darkness.
Mike B.
: I don't like the looks of that.
I just picked up a van behind me.
I'm not really sure what this thing's all about, but generally speaking, what you do to be a good neighbor on these roads is, if you get somebody behind you, you pull over and let them by.
I'm gonna attempt to do that.
But if it looks like they're gonna pull in behind me, then I'm gonna have to come up with another plan because I'm not gonna get jacked tonight.
[Gun cocks.]
Mike B.
: I don't like the looks of that.
Narrator: Mike Boutin is making a night run with 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana.
He faces a felony possession count or being held up by hijackers.
Generally speaking, what you do to be a good neighbor on these roads is, if you get somebody behind you, you pull over and let them by.
But if it looks like they're gonna pull in behind me, then I'm gonna have to come up with another plan because I'm not gonna get jacked tonight.
[Gun cocks.]
Look like I'm looking for something as they go by.
There they go.
I don't know who that was, but we're not taking any chances out here in the middle of the night.
All right, here we go.
Oh, boy.
I might have picked a bad night for a pot run.
[Sighs.]
Here we go.
Oh, my God.
Narrator: Matt Shotwell, a former merchant marine, has just been released from Solano County jail.
Shotwell is the owner of Greenwell Collective, what was once the county's largest medical-marijuana dispensary.
The day before, during a citywide crackdown, Greenwell was raided and shut down.
9:00 A.
M.
in the morning, in my living room, I look on my security-camera system and I just see these guys crawling like ants all around my house, just looking up, looking down with machine guns and ski masks, an armored vehicle, and I just stood there in my living room and I just waited.
And I was like, "all this is for me?" [Voice breaking.]
"All this is for me?" And then they opened that door, I just saw three guys all in black with machine guns pointed at me and laser beams on my face, [echoing.]
and he said, "get on the [Bleep.]
ground!" [Bleep.]
I don't even care.
What are they gonna do to me now? Narrator: All across California, dispensaries like Shotwell's are being taken down.
Shotwell: They took everything.
They took $100,000 of inventory on consignment from people in the community, all the brownies, the edibles, the joints, 800 plants.
They took everything.
Narrator: The last stop in the distribution line, dispensaries are seen as a haven for illegal activity.
Right now, I'm looking at eight years in jail.
I was charged with felony cultivation, felony sales, operating a business engaged in felonious activity.
I was the first dispensary in the downtown area, and by the time I got raided, there was over 20 of them, and the city just said enough.
I've already lost a lot in my life, and I'm just trying to hold on to a ship that's taken on water really fast.
Thanks, brother.
Gilley: We know this area.
It's the main artery for several garden sites.
Narrator: Fresh off his bust from the day before, Sergeant Mike Gilley patrols the Emerald Triangle.
I believe, over the last seven years, we've eradicated over 1.
8 million plants out of Siskiyou County.
We've seen a lot of high-quality dope come out of this county we're going to.
My goal is to blend in, but what I like to try to avoid is I like to try to avoid groups and problems.
Narrator: Mike Boutin continues his run out of the Emerald Triangle with 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana.
Gilley: Based on some of the information we're receiving, the team decided to set up on this road and possibly do some interdiction on narcotic-related vehicles.
Narrator: "Interdiction" means the interception of vehicles smuggling pot.
[Radar beeping.]
Mike B.
: It's telling me there's a low-level radar in operation.
It's nothing too worrisome.
It's when it says "K.
A.
Alert" and has a little bit different sound that's highway patrol, unless it's the interdiction team.
[Radar beeps.]
K.
A.
Alert.
That's K.
A.
right there.
It's pretty steady.
I can find myself in a life-changing situation.
Just because it's California doesn't mean that everything's green and easy.
Let's go check this guy out.
[Siren wails.]
California, Six, Victor Mike B.
: So, we have a problem.
[Radar beeping.]
[Siren wailing.]
This is 1195 Narrator: On the outskirts of the Emerald Triangle [Radar beeps.]
So, we have a problem.
Narrator: A game of cat and mouse is under way.
California, Six, Victor, Ocean, Edward.
Narrator: Sergeant Mike Gilley and Detective Jason Jones have pulled over a suspicious vehicle on a known drug-smuggling route.
[Radar beeping.]
Right here on our left, we got a local cop.
You cross into certain counties and you know you're gonna see drug interdiction and they're gonna be working it pretty hard.
And if I get pulled over, I mean, it could be game over.
Narrator: Mike Boutin avoids detection for now.
I'm on my way to go meet Catherine Jacobson, and we're gonna meet at this herbal medicine store.
Narrator: With his farm up and running, grower Nate Morris came down out of the mountains to take a very unusual meeting.
He's meeting with a mother who has been treating her son's epilepsy with cannabis.
- Hi.
Catherine? - Yes.
Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you.
- What a cute kid.
- Thanks.
My name is Catherine Jacobson.
I'm a post doctoral researcher at Stanford University.
My son suffers from treatment-resistant epilepsy.
My mother told me about you, actually.
My mother has epilepsy, and, actually, I do, too.
There were days when he had 10 seizures in one day, and we couldn't stop them.
He would cry out in terror right before a seizure and claw at me and look at me.
I felt like I should be able to help him somehow, and I couldn't.
Narrator: Severe epilepsy can lead to death.
Jacobson: I met a dad at an epilepsy conference whose son died suddenly one night.
He didn't have seizures every day.
This kid had seizures a couple times a year, and one of these seizures killed him.
And so, when I heard that story, I thought, "how do I know that Ben's gonna live through the night? He's having 10 seizures a day.
" I mean, to sleep with that every night for years is absolutely devastating.
It's not a good life.
Narrator: Ben's pediatrician advised several different treatments, including invasive surgery, countless pills, and huge doses of steroids.
When they didn't work, the doctor wanted Ben's mom to try another round.
Jacobson: For one of those drugs, I had to sign a paper that said, "you realize your child might die of liver failure while he's on this drug," so the idea of starting these drugs again was not a good option for us.
Narrator: Desperate for a solution, she turned to cannabis.
Jacobson: So, then I went to a neurologist, and he has a number of parents who are using cannabidiol in their children and are seeing some beneficial effect on seizure control, but I had no idea what cannabidiol was.
Narrator: The marijuana plant contains two vital ingredients THC and cannabidiol, also known as CBD.
One gets you high, while the other does not.
In fact, CBDs counter the effects of THC.
Jacobson: I was really nervous about trying this in my son.
I'm not a recreational marijuana user.
I don't know how to get it.
I think the last time I saw it was when I was in college.
It's your goal to give CBDs without THC, is that right? That's right.
The tincture we've been getting was grown by our nurse.
- Has it been effective? - That was effective.
That one had active THC in it, then.
It did, and it was at a 4-to-1 ratio, CBD to THC, but I couldn't really give him that long-term.
The next step was to go to a dispensary.
Most of what they sell at a dispensary is dried plant material, so I had no idea how to get cannabidiol from the plant material, and my main goal was to avoid giving Ben any kind of THC.
My major hurdle right now is the drug.
Okay.
I don't know how to make it, I don't know how to That, I can definitely help with without a doubt.
If we found a strand that didn't have hardly any THC in it but had a lot of CBDs I'm hoping to produce, basically, a product that has no THC in it.
Morris: The outlook for a child like Ben, having up to a dozen seizures a day, is very bleak.
Catherine you can tell she's just gone through hell and back, you know, dealing with this, and I'm just honored to know her and want to help any way I can.
Well, we got a lot to think about, a lot to talk about.
- It was really nice to meet you.
- It was so nice meeting you.
Narrator: Nate is already a felon in the eyes of the federal government.
What he's about to take on could put him away for the rest of his life.
Morris: There is some serious legal jeopardy involved with providing a controlled substance to a minor.
I am terrified of going to jail over this.
I never intended to take this level of risk, but at the same time, how do you not when children's lives are at stake? And so, I'm committed 100%.
I'm gonna go for it and hope for the best.
Here, you have one on your left right about two to three.
Look at the size of that.
Drugs are gonna be the downfall of this country, and I'm gonna stop it.
Narrator: In the war room of the Jackson County Sheriff's office Winters: Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Appreciate everyone taking time out of their schedule to be here today.
Narrator: The Sheriffs of seven counties are gathered.
They are facing an invasion of pot growers moving up from the South.
Winters: We're gonna discuss some of the issues here in Northern California, Southwest Oregon, with our summer program, and some of the marijuana issues.
- So, - Matt, can you give a summary of what we're looking at this year? Northeast Oregon, last year, had a big year, so I expect their numbers to go down and ours start climbing back up.
Narrator: The Emerald Triangle is expanding north, heading straight for them.
Well, the Emerald Triangle consists of basically three counties in Northern California Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties and is continually growing.
There's a long history of marijuana drug activity in that area.
Thomson: Last year, they had foot patrols with binoculars and high-powered rifles and whatnot.
They were making daily patrols up and down the canyons.
Narrator: Sheriff Mike Winters is facing a tidal wave of violence.
Winters: We started seeing law-enforcement-officer-involved shootings.
There's booby traps.
They're starting to guard these gardens with MS-13 gang members.
They're always armed.
They're ruthless.
These guys mean business.
Narrator: But Sheriff Winters is fighting back.
Winters: This agency alone has taken a billion dollars worth of marijuana off the streets.
Narrator: And to help him win Winters is calling in the cavalry.
Helicopters are used to hunt down and capture illegal marijuana growers.
Winters: We rely heavily on air surveillance to locate these illicit grows.
We're a lot more high-tech at this point.
Narrator: Winters and his men take to the air to track down illegal growers.
Here, you have one on your left right about two to three.
Look at the size of that.
It's nothing to be taken lightly.
I think a lot of people have underestimated what we're dealing with out there.
This is big money to them, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to protect it and get their crop harvested so they can take that crop and turn it into cash.
Narrator: The team flies over several medical grows that sprang up after the laws allowing medicinal use went into effect.
If you look out to the left on the hillside over there, there's a big one.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
One going under us.
There's one down there.
Winters: I don't think the people expected the ramifications of what they voted for.
I think it was underestimated of how big this was gonna get and how out of control it was gonna get.
Here's a major one, we're coming up.
I'll slow down here 'cause this is a big one.
There's 70-some plants there.
That looks like a doggone orange orchard or something.
Narrator: He pinpoints the location of violators.
This is the city of gold hill.
I don't know if you can see that one there.
Right in that backyard.
You got it there? And now Winters is about to unleash a ground army of enforcers in his battle against illegal growers.
Winters: Some would say that marijuana is just a plant, that it should be legalized, and that it is no different than alcohol.
I don't agree with it.
I've seen a decline, in my opinion, of America from great to good.
I don't want to see it decline.
I want to see it be the best it can be.
Another one here on top of the hill.
Drugs are gonna be the downfall of this country, and I'm gonna stop it.
We're gonna work our way up the I-5 corridor.
Mike B.
: There's a motorcycle cop sitting right over there.
See? He's just kind of radar-ing people from behind a bush very dangerous.
Getting through the city in one piece, you know, without getting in an accident that causes police to come is the best way to ensure that I get the patients the medicine they need.
I'm in a hurry, but not in such a big hurry that I want to get pulled over.
Narrator: After 12 hours on the road, Mike Boutin pulls up to a home in Redondo Beach.
This is just one of many deliveries he'll be making in Southern California.
But the guy who is about to receive Mike Boutin's weed is not like other clients.
He's a cop.
[Whistles.]
Lassik! That dog not coming to greet me was a huge red flag.
[Knocks on door.]
What's up? What's up, Mikey? How are you? Hey, man.
Your new place looks great.
Narrator: Mike Boutin has arrived at the final stop of a drug run that has taken him down the California coast.
I brought some really great indoroyal.
Just like Boutin's dad and brother, this guy is a cop.
I'm Nicholas.
I'm former law enforcement 15 years NYPD.
Narrator: Nicholas is a former narcotics officer whose life was turned upside down.
I have this disease called avascular necrosis.
What it does is, it affects the artery that brings blood to the femoral head of your bone.
I had a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and he said, "Nick, man," he goes, "in about a week or two, you're not gonna be able to walk.
" And I said, "come on, man.
" And two weeks went by, and I had a cane.
Two weeks went by, and I was in a wheelchair.
Two weeks went by, and I was crawling out of bed to get to the bathroom.
Narrator: To ease his symptoms of his degenerative bone disease, Nicholas turned to cannabis Black: Cannabis moves blood, and for someone with circulation problems, I had to move my blood quickly.
And that's what I did.
Narrator: Which he chooses to ingest rather than smoke.
Tastes good and clean? Yeah, man.
Good deal.
Black: If you smoke medical marijuana, you get 10 milligrams of the healthy medicine.
Where if you eat the cannabis, raw or dried, you get almost 600.
Mike B.
: Not a lot of people would allow an ex-law enforcement officer into their collective, and I could understand that.
It's unusual, but, you know, I'm comfortable with it because I come from a cop family.
- Thank you, sir.
- Sweet.
He didn't come at me sideways.
He came straight at me.
"I'm an ex-cop.
" No problem.
- Would you like some tea? - Yes.
So, basically, you're doing better.
I'm feeling good, man.
You know, the weather it's great.
Everything's falling into place.
The garden's keeping me busy.
And busy is good? Busy's good.
One of the reasons I'll spend 12 hours in a car and dodge cops and grow marijuana and bring it to people like Nick is because you know what when I see that he can even walk up steps now, I'm gonna get down here and make sure he doesn't end up back in a wheelchair.
Nick's a big part of the reason why we do what we do and patients just like him.
Cops be damned.
It's so empty.
[Scoffs.]
Narrator: Back in Vallejo, California, Matt Shotwell, once the biggest marijuana dealer in the city, visits the site of his liquidated dispensary with his girlfriend, Soraya Moore.
Remember this? Jukebox.
The jukebox that's right.
I forgot about the jukebox.
Man.
Soraya met me right when I was at my peak of my business game.
She saw me at my best.
Good morning, young lady.
Welcome to Greenwell.
Greenwell, back in its heyday it was cracking.
We were the biggest medical-marijuana collective out here.
Narrator: Shotwell sold thousands of people medical-grade marijuana at a price of nearly $400 an ounce.
I got white Russian, and I got sour diesel.
I really wanted to make a place where any patient can come by, and they can get anything that they needed to get.
We had just about everything.
It was the spot to be at.
How many patients have we had so far? 79 so far.
79 and it's only 2:00.
I was the man in downtown Vallejo.
Narrator: But now Shotwell is out of a job with an 8-year prison sentence hanging over him.
Omar said we got to find an expert.
We got to find an expert, so My lawyer, Omar, told me I have to get a cannabis expert, someone that the court recognizes, to go to bat for me and say, "he was doing this the right way.
" Let's find one.
All right, cannabis expert it's chrisconrad.
com.
I heard he's really expensive, and Omar said he's gonna cost a couple grand.
I don't have any money, anymore.
Everything's been seized, frozen, taken, so I needed to find someone that would do it for me for nothing.
Who's this other cannabis expert guy? Look at this guy.
B.
E.
Smith Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Smith, 52.
Defends medical marijuana.
So, he's up in trinity county.
So, me and soraya we're looking on the Internet for a cannabis expert, and we come across this guy, B.
E.
Smith, apparently, a pretty world-renowned cannabis expert.
He's been to jail.
I've been to jail.
I think he might be a good candidate, so I got to go up to the woods and find him.
And the display cases look.
They were all right here.
You can still see exactly where they were.
You know how many grams of weed I sold standing right here? [Chuckles.]
Going back through there with nothing in that building made me feel kind of like, "I want my glory back.
I want to repair my name and my reputation.
" Moore: You're just more capable of doing bigger things.
You cultivated this business in two years, and you can do something else.
Look, the laws are gonna change, though.
It's not always gonna be like this.
- I'm not gonna quit the game now.
- This guy's an expert.
You can be an expert.
I kind of want to be a consultant and - you should.
Absolutely.
- Use what I've learned to show these farmers, maybe, how to get their pot out of their farms and down here.
No, it's still the same.
You're still using the same It's like being a broker.
That's not what I'm saying.
Moore: Matt he can do so many other things.
He has a brilliant mind.
He's an educated man.
This isn't the only solution.
I don't believe that he needs to be cultivating again in this business.
There's money to be made and there's patients that had been blowing up the greenwell e-mail and all the other clubs they just don't have any pot because the farmers are afraid to bring it down.
You just need to worry about yourself, Matt.
You're facing criminal charges.
Well, do you have another suggestion of how I can collect an income? Shotwell: Me and soraya are not in agreement about what to do going forward.
She just wants to move on and start some new chapter, but it's a delicate balance I have to do between not going to jail and providing an income.
And there's money on the table.
Who better to do it but me? But she don't want it to be me.
Narrator: To revive his business, Shotwell is going north to procure more than just a cannabis expert.
I need to do something now.
There's a need to fill now.
I can fill it, so I think I should.
He's heading to the emerald triangle to get some weed.
This is not something that I agree with, and you know that.
All right.
Having avoided capture, Mike Boutin heads home $9,000 richer.
So, I haven't had any cell service for at least a couple hours now, and even if I did, everybody's out working.
I'm only a few miles from home right now, so I'm kind of excited, but I'm kind of hesitant and I'm anxious, too.
Narrator: Boutin left his farm vulnerable for two days.
His wife, Tawni, and their dog, Lassik, were left behind.
Tawni: Bullet puts my dog down, and then where am I? You know, so it's scary.
Mike B.
: I come around the corner, I'm gonna start trying to take in as much information as I can.
One of the first things I want to see is my German Shepherd.
If my German Shepherd's out and about roaming, everything's cool.
All right, here we are.
No German Shepherd.
[Whistles.]
[Whistles.]
Narrator: Boutin arrives home to an eerily deserted farm.
Lassik! Hello? That dog he can hear that truck a mile down the road, coming.
Hello? Lassik! I don't like this.
[Blowing.]
[Gun cocks.]
That dog not coming to greet me was a huge red flag.
Lassik! Hello? Hello? This isn't normal.
Narrator: Mike boutin returns from a two-day drug run down south.
His wife and his dog are missing.
[Blowing.]
[Gun cocks.]
Boutin fears that something's gone horribly wrong.
Hey.
You guys didn't hear me? Oh, that scared me.
I expected you to be working, Lassik to be out, and it was quiet, no one around, no one answered me.
Hey! Love you.
Love you.
When I have the type of little scare like I just had, where, you know, I get some red flags thrown in my face and I don't really know what's going on, but I know it's not normal, the range of possibilities is anywhere from "there was a police action" to "there was a thug action.
" If I came home and something had happened to my wife, I would just be lost.
How come you didn't seem happy to see me, huh? How come, man? Are you coming, or you want to go, or ? I love you, but I need to go do this, so Moore: Matt could be thrown in jail tomorrow.
I hope that he has a plan for himself outside of this industry.
It's what he needs to do.
I'm not gonna support him a second time through this if he [Bleep.]
up again, you know? [Sighs.]
[Engine turns over.]
Narrator: He was the biggest marijuana dispensary owner in Vallejo, California.
Shotwell: Vallejo, Vallejo the city of opportunity.
At least that's what the sign says.
Narrator: Now Matt Shotwell is a disgraced businessman looking to restore his stature in the weed business.
It's just a business that can't fail.
I've never seen a marijuana dispensary go out of business because it couldn't make money.
Whoever's left standing here in Vallejo after this cannabis war stands to make a lot of money.
Narrator: For growers and dealers like Shotwell, the road to a better life is tied up in a controversial plant.
Mike B.
: Cannabis is a plant, but yet it's food, it's fuel, it's housing, it's freedom.
Run on for a long time And it's also ignorance, it's lies, it's deception.
Run on for a long time It's life.
Sooner or later, gonna cut you down Narrator: The road is paved with untold risks.
Morris: Everybody who grows medical cannabis is in legal jeopardy, and I accepted those risks when I wasn't helping any children, so it would be ridiculous for me to shy away from them now.
so sweet I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet I will stop at nothing.
I'm gonna get this done one way or the other.
Narrator: The road is paved with worry and concern for a nation at war.
You just hate to see where America's gonna go if we stay on the same path.
There's a lot of money in marijuana, and it is taking over American streets.
It's a war, it's serious, and we have to stop it.
He said, "son, you got to go for the kill" Narrator: And when it comes to marijuana, all roads lead back to the Emerald Triangle.
Shotwell: When I get up there to the triangle, I got to get a cannabis expert, I need to get some farmers, and I need to get some pounds and bring them back down here to Vallejo without going to jail, without pissing off my girlfriend.
I mean, I have to come back from this some way.
I'm not just gonna wither away into nothing and be an also-ran.
I'm gonna come back from this, and I'm gonna win.
gonna cut you down
They're growing in your front yard.
Well, yeah.
Mike B.
: There's nothing more American than a man taking his piece of ground and producing a product that people want.
Narrator: This is the Emerald Triangle.
I mean, look at the size of that.
That looks like an orange orchard.
Narrator: Ground zero for a multi-billion-dollar marijuana industry, originally comprised of three counties covering 10,000 square miles.
It's now growing out of control, and rebels are staking their claim.
You can use those feet to walk off this property anytime you feel like it.
You get the [Bleep.]
off my land! They stand to make millions It's just a business that can't fail.
Narrator: Or be locked up for years.
[Siren wails.]
Uh-oh.
Winters: We have the medical marijuana laws that, for the people who are making profit off of it, we have to stop it.
You can haul one, you can haul 100.
I got one right on target.
Narrator: It's a decades-old battle between cops, dealers, and growers, using 21st-century science to make the most powerful weed on earth.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
Narrator: This is the story about America at war with itself.
Every time one of those plants falls, that's money that we don't get.
It is a problem at epidemic proportions.
Shotwell: Yeah, I'm breaking the law on TV.
I've got the target off to our left.
So what? This is weed country.
We will never stop this ever.
Narrator: It is one of the most forbidding, remote, and notorious places on earth.
Once confined to three small counties in Northern California, it is expanding every year in every direction.
Here, deep in the forest of what is called the Emerald Triangle, the marijuana growing season Mike B.
: Josh! 10 seconds! Is about to begin.
[Cellphone beeps.]
Here we go! I love this stuff.
Why was it so important to start moving the light back? I wanted to fool these plants into a schedule and a cycle that says "flower.
" I'm Mike Boutin.
My father was a police officer.
Mmm, I love the smell of that right there.
My brother's a police officer.
I was a jet-engine mechanic on F-4 phantoms in the Air Force.
I've owned my own trucks, hauled logs, been an ax man, and now I grow weed.
You know, we got a lot of plants to sync, so we'll go gather up Tawni and get busy.
Narrator: It's June 1st.
Mike and Tawni Boutin are moving their plants from their indoor greenhouses out into the open.
Over the next five months, an estimated $4.
5 billion worth of marijuana will be grown and harvested in the Emerald Triangle.
I got to tell you, Mrs.
Boutin, there are some of the nicest plants.
Growers all throughout the area are staking their claim.
Mike B.
: Tawni is my wife.
She loves marijuana the same as I do.
She's really the grower.
Tawni: These are my babies.
I love my girls.
I get really heartbroken when something happens to them.
You missed a couple spots.
Narrator: Growing marijuana is more than just syncing plants and keeping them watered.
Today's a big day 'cause today's like race day.
What we do today determines what we're gonna get in quantity at the end of the year, and then, of course, everything that goes wrong just comes out of our wages.
So you can't win the championship today, but you can lose it.
Narrator: Growers like Boutin can earn a year's salary in a single summer.
With that kind of reward comes huge risk.
Mike B.
: Planting marijuana outdoors in the full sun is putting a bull's-eye on your back.
Some of these counties have it in their head that marijuana's illegal, that's all there is to it.
Prove it to the judge.
So, one of the things that we're doing today by putting these plants in the ground we're hoisting the flag of civil disobedience.
This is gonna be out there for the D.
E.
A.
to see.
It's gonna be out there for the Sheriff's department to see.
It's gonna be out there for any marijuana thieves.
All the forces that could take us down are at play every day from today on.
[Gunshots.]
Narrator: In a separate corner of the Emerald Triangle, another marijuana season is just beginning.
Fall in! Matt Thomson is training his men in how to sneak up on and overtake illegal marijuana farms.
- Thomson: Ready, up.
- Up.
You know, a large part of the training we do early in the year is our tactical movements through the woods trying to be quiet, we're watching out for each other.
And it does pay off, and it's paid off for as many years as we've been doing this because we've never lost anybody, and that's why we do it.
We don't want to lose anybody.
Narrator: The members of the Jackson County SWAT team regularly encounter armed growers willing to protect their money and their crop.
Today, Thomson is training his men to stay alive.
How long did you guys hold up here before you moved in? - Man: Five minutes.
- Okay.
Narrator: For over half of his life, Thomson has been a major force in taking down pot growers all around the Emerald Triangle.
Do you guys want to run through it one more time? Right got your right.
[Gunshots.]
Thomson: Are we gonna save the world by doing what we're doing? No, we're not.
But on the flip side of that, if we can save one person from getting hooked on drugs or one person from smoking a bowl and getting out in a car, driving, and killing somebody, then it's all worth it.
The blood meal we do three cups, - right? - Yeah, that's three.
Three cups.
Narrator: For Nate Morris and his business partner, Eric Honour, day one of the growing season means starting from scratch with a bag of soil.
Let's start mixing.
Over the next few months, Nate's finely calibrated soil mixture will produce a very powerful strain of marijuana.
We call this mix we actually call it "the mix.
" The mix.
These ingredients are what bring out the full flavors, what produces the higher yield.
If we had intellectual property, it would be that soil.
My name is Nathaniel Morris.
I started growing pot when I was 14 years old.
At that point, I already knew I was a biology geek and I just applied my love of science to my love of growing pot.
That started me off as a mad scientist.
The science that we're doing here, you know never been done before.
Narrator: Nate believes his marijuana has the power to relieve several ailments.
When you say cannabis is the cure for cancer, you sound like a [Bleep.]
idiot.
The fact is, medical cannabis is capable of sending cancerous tumors into remission.
Narrator: Nate plans to turn his weed into a medical game changer.
Morris: Any other flower that had these medical properties would be treated as the greatest discovery to happen in this century, and this one, you know it's a laugh line.
Narrator: In the eyes of the government, Nate is a felon committing a crime.
Somebody with over 100 plants is looking at 5 years.
If you got over 1,000 plants, you're looking at 40 years, which is just an insane punishment for a garden of flowers, but that's the way it is.
Woman: Piece of [Bleep.]
you get what you deserve! Narrator: But to some, medical marijuana is a scam.
Gilley: My name is Mike Gilley.
I'm commander of the marijuana team for Siskiyou County.
I've been doing law enforcement here for 27 years.
Narrator: On opening day of the marijuana season, Gilley's SWAT team is making a drug bust in a town called Weed, named after the timber tycoon Abner Weed.
The town of roughly 3,000 is quickly becoming known for its other namesake, and Gilley can't stand it.
Gilley: It makes me mad that we've taken this law, and now we are using it as a front to use an illegal substance.
It hits a raw nerve with me.
If I can be part of squashing that, then that makes me very happy.
Narrator: Gilley works for this guy.
I am Sheriff Jon Lopey, Sheriff coroner of Siskiyou County, California.
Narrator: Lopey is one of the most highly decorated cops in all of California.
But right now, he has his hands full.
Lopey: Siskiyou County, right now we're deluged with a lot of drug-related problems.
Provisions of law in California provide for the legal possession of marijuana for so-called medicinal purposes.
Many people are growing more marijuana than is permissible.
Kids are gaining a hold of it, and that's one of my big concerns.
It is a problem at epidemic proportions.
Narrator: Contrary to popular belief, marijuana was once grown legally in the United States until 1937, when it was federally outlawed.
Today, marijuana is a schedule-I drug, in the same category as heroin and crystal meth.
19 states have laws allowing for its medicinal use, and in 2012, both Washington and Colorado voters legalized the plant for recreation.
But since it's still a federal crime, for some there's no easy way to get it.
Mike B.
: And in my pan, in my sack Over the next few days, Mike Boutin will deliver 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana up and down the California coast.
Sack it.
Mike B.
: You have risks that range from law-enforcement intervention.
How much is legal to carry? Is it even legal to transport? Some jurisdictions will contend "no.
" You get pulled over by one of those, and you're going to jail.
Am I an outlaw now because I'm at odds with state law or federal law? I am an outlaw.
I've always been an outlaw, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong.
I'll see you in a few days, okay? - [Smooches.]
Be careful.
- Narrator: Every time Boutin goes on a run, he is leaving his home exposed to law enforcement raiding him, or worse.
Tawni: Things get weirder out here, you know? We just had a home-invasion robbery, and the people got murdered, you know, in the process of it, so it's not like it couldn't happen here.
I don't like the fact that it's just me and a dog here.
You know, a bullet puts my dog down, and then where am I? You know, so it's scary.
Come on, buddy.
Mike B.
: This game is just like the wildebeest migration.
You know, you got to cross the river with the crocodiles in it, and I'm trying to catch the crocodiles asleep right now.
Narrator: Not only does he have to avoid cops, Boutin must dodge bandits looking to steal his cash or crop.
Throughout the Emerald Triangle, they're known as rippers.
Mike B.
: Rippers they're just lazy mother[Bleep.]
that's what they are.
So, you can't be too careful about being ambushed.
People have been killed in this county over marijuana.
Here comes a car two of them.
Narrator: Every set of headlights is a potential threat.
Mike B.
: First one's nothing.
Second one looked like it could have been law enforcement.
That's what I don't like about this.
It's uncertainty.
Narrator: A vehicle abruptly pulls out of the darkness.
Mike B.
: I don't like the looks of that.
I just picked up a van behind me.
I'm not really sure what this thing's all about, but generally speaking, what you do to be a good neighbor on these roads is, if you get somebody behind you, you pull over and let them by.
I'm gonna attempt to do that.
But if it looks like they're gonna pull in behind me, then I'm gonna have to come up with another plan because I'm not gonna get jacked tonight.
[Gun cocks.]
Mike B.
: I don't like the looks of that.
Narrator: Mike Boutin is making a night run with 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana.
He faces a felony possession count or being held up by hijackers.
Generally speaking, what you do to be a good neighbor on these roads is, if you get somebody behind you, you pull over and let them by.
But if it looks like they're gonna pull in behind me, then I'm gonna have to come up with another plan because I'm not gonna get jacked tonight.
[Gun cocks.]
Look like I'm looking for something as they go by.
There they go.
I don't know who that was, but we're not taking any chances out here in the middle of the night.
All right, here we go.
Oh, boy.
I might have picked a bad night for a pot run.
[Sighs.]
Here we go.
Oh, my God.
Narrator: Matt Shotwell, a former merchant marine, has just been released from Solano County jail.
Shotwell is the owner of Greenwell Collective, what was once the county's largest medical-marijuana dispensary.
The day before, during a citywide crackdown, Greenwell was raided and shut down.
9:00 A.
M.
in the morning, in my living room, I look on my security-camera system and I just see these guys crawling like ants all around my house, just looking up, looking down with machine guns and ski masks, an armored vehicle, and I just stood there in my living room and I just waited.
And I was like, "all this is for me?" [Voice breaking.]
"All this is for me?" And then they opened that door, I just saw three guys all in black with machine guns pointed at me and laser beams on my face, [echoing.]
and he said, "get on the [Bleep.]
ground!" [Bleep.]
I don't even care.
What are they gonna do to me now? Narrator: All across California, dispensaries like Shotwell's are being taken down.
Shotwell: They took everything.
They took $100,000 of inventory on consignment from people in the community, all the brownies, the edibles, the joints, 800 plants.
They took everything.
Narrator: The last stop in the distribution line, dispensaries are seen as a haven for illegal activity.
Right now, I'm looking at eight years in jail.
I was charged with felony cultivation, felony sales, operating a business engaged in felonious activity.
I was the first dispensary in the downtown area, and by the time I got raided, there was over 20 of them, and the city just said enough.
I've already lost a lot in my life, and I'm just trying to hold on to a ship that's taken on water really fast.
Thanks, brother.
Gilley: We know this area.
It's the main artery for several garden sites.
Narrator: Fresh off his bust from the day before, Sergeant Mike Gilley patrols the Emerald Triangle.
I believe, over the last seven years, we've eradicated over 1.
8 million plants out of Siskiyou County.
We've seen a lot of high-quality dope come out of this county we're going to.
My goal is to blend in, but what I like to try to avoid is I like to try to avoid groups and problems.
Narrator: Mike Boutin continues his run out of the Emerald Triangle with 6 pounds of high-grade marijuana.
Gilley: Based on some of the information we're receiving, the team decided to set up on this road and possibly do some interdiction on narcotic-related vehicles.
Narrator: "Interdiction" means the interception of vehicles smuggling pot.
[Radar beeping.]
Mike B.
: It's telling me there's a low-level radar in operation.
It's nothing too worrisome.
It's when it says "K.
A.
Alert" and has a little bit different sound that's highway patrol, unless it's the interdiction team.
[Radar beeps.]
K.
A.
Alert.
That's K.
A.
right there.
It's pretty steady.
I can find myself in a life-changing situation.
Just because it's California doesn't mean that everything's green and easy.
Let's go check this guy out.
[Siren wails.]
California, Six, Victor Mike B.
: So, we have a problem.
[Radar beeping.]
[Siren wailing.]
This is 1195 Narrator: On the outskirts of the Emerald Triangle [Radar beeps.]
So, we have a problem.
Narrator: A game of cat and mouse is under way.
California, Six, Victor, Ocean, Edward.
Narrator: Sergeant Mike Gilley and Detective Jason Jones have pulled over a suspicious vehicle on a known drug-smuggling route.
[Radar beeping.]
Right here on our left, we got a local cop.
You cross into certain counties and you know you're gonna see drug interdiction and they're gonna be working it pretty hard.
And if I get pulled over, I mean, it could be game over.
Narrator: Mike Boutin avoids detection for now.
I'm on my way to go meet Catherine Jacobson, and we're gonna meet at this herbal medicine store.
Narrator: With his farm up and running, grower Nate Morris came down out of the mountains to take a very unusual meeting.
He's meeting with a mother who has been treating her son's epilepsy with cannabis.
- Hi.
Catherine? - Yes.
Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you.
- What a cute kid.
- Thanks.
My name is Catherine Jacobson.
I'm a post doctoral researcher at Stanford University.
My son suffers from treatment-resistant epilepsy.
My mother told me about you, actually.
My mother has epilepsy, and, actually, I do, too.
There were days when he had 10 seizures in one day, and we couldn't stop them.
He would cry out in terror right before a seizure and claw at me and look at me.
I felt like I should be able to help him somehow, and I couldn't.
Narrator: Severe epilepsy can lead to death.
Jacobson: I met a dad at an epilepsy conference whose son died suddenly one night.
He didn't have seizures every day.
This kid had seizures a couple times a year, and one of these seizures killed him.
And so, when I heard that story, I thought, "how do I know that Ben's gonna live through the night? He's having 10 seizures a day.
" I mean, to sleep with that every night for years is absolutely devastating.
It's not a good life.
Narrator: Ben's pediatrician advised several different treatments, including invasive surgery, countless pills, and huge doses of steroids.
When they didn't work, the doctor wanted Ben's mom to try another round.
Jacobson: For one of those drugs, I had to sign a paper that said, "you realize your child might die of liver failure while he's on this drug," so the idea of starting these drugs again was not a good option for us.
Narrator: Desperate for a solution, she turned to cannabis.
Jacobson: So, then I went to a neurologist, and he has a number of parents who are using cannabidiol in their children and are seeing some beneficial effect on seizure control, but I had no idea what cannabidiol was.
Narrator: The marijuana plant contains two vital ingredients THC and cannabidiol, also known as CBD.
One gets you high, while the other does not.
In fact, CBDs counter the effects of THC.
Jacobson: I was really nervous about trying this in my son.
I'm not a recreational marijuana user.
I don't know how to get it.
I think the last time I saw it was when I was in college.
It's your goal to give CBDs without THC, is that right? That's right.
The tincture we've been getting was grown by our nurse.
- Has it been effective? - That was effective.
That one had active THC in it, then.
It did, and it was at a 4-to-1 ratio, CBD to THC, but I couldn't really give him that long-term.
The next step was to go to a dispensary.
Most of what they sell at a dispensary is dried plant material, so I had no idea how to get cannabidiol from the plant material, and my main goal was to avoid giving Ben any kind of THC.
My major hurdle right now is the drug.
Okay.
I don't know how to make it, I don't know how to That, I can definitely help with without a doubt.
If we found a strand that didn't have hardly any THC in it but had a lot of CBDs I'm hoping to produce, basically, a product that has no THC in it.
Morris: The outlook for a child like Ben, having up to a dozen seizures a day, is very bleak.
Catherine you can tell she's just gone through hell and back, you know, dealing with this, and I'm just honored to know her and want to help any way I can.
Well, we got a lot to think about, a lot to talk about.
- It was really nice to meet you.
- It was so nice meeting you.
Narrator: Nate is already a felon in the eyes of the federal government.
What he's about to take on could put him away for the rest of his life.
Morris: There is some serious legal jeopardy involved with providing a controlled substance to a minor.
I am terrified of going to jail over this.
I never intended to take this level of risk, but at the same time, how do you not when children's lives are at stake? And so, I'm committed 100%.
I'm gonna go for it and hope for the best.
Here, you have one on your left right about two to three.
Look at the size of that.
Drugs are gonna be the downfall of this country, and I'm gonna stop it.
Narrator: In the war room of the Jackson County Sheriff's office Winters: Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Appreciate everyone taking time out of their schedule to be here today.
Narrator: The Sheriffs of seven counties are gathered.
They are facing an invasion of pot growers moving up from the South.
Winters: We're gonna discuss some of the issues here in Northern California, Southwest Oregon, with our summer program, and some of the marijuana issues.
- So, - Matt, can you give a summary of what we're looking at this year? Northeast Oregon, last year, had a big year, so I expect their numbers to go down and ours start climbing back up.
Narrator: The Emerald Triangle is expanding north, heading straight for them.
Well, the Emerald Triangle consists of basically three counties in Northern California Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties and is continually growing.
There's a long history of marijuana drug activity in that area.
Thomson: Last year, they had foot patrols with binoculars and high-powered rifles and whatnot.
They were making daily patrols up and down the canyons.
Narrator: Sheriff Mike Winters is facing a tidal wave of violence.
Winters: We started seeing law-enforcement-officer-involved shootings.
There's booby traps.
They're starting to guard these gardens with MS-13 gang members.
They're always armed.
They're ruthless.
These guys mean business.
Narrator: But Sheriff Winters is fighting back.
Winters: This agency alone has taken a billion dollars worth of marijuana off the streets.
Narrator: And to help him win Winters is calling in the cavalry.
Helicopters are used to hunt down and capture illegal marijuana growers.
Winters: We rely heavily on air surveillance to locate these illicit grows.
We're a lot more high-tech at this point.
Narrator: Winters and his men take to the air to track down illegal growers.
Here, you have one on your left right about two to three.
Look at the size of that.
It's nothing to be taken lightly.
I think a lot of people have underestimated what we're dealing with out there.
This is big money to them, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to protect it and get their crop harvested so they can take that crop and turn it into cash.
Narrator: The team flies over several medical grows that sprang up after the laws allowing medicinal use went into effect.
If you look out to the left on the hillside over there, there's a big one.
[Speaks indistinctly.]
One going under us.
There's one down there.
Winters: I don't think the people expected the ramifications of what they voted for.
I think it was underestimated of how big this was gonna get and how out of control it was gonna get.
Here's a major one, we're coming up.
I'll slow down here 'cause this is a big one.
There's 70-some plants there.
That looks like a doggone orange orchard or something.
Narrator: He pinpoints the location of violators.
This is the city of gold hill.
I don't know if you can see that one there.
Right in that backyard.
You got it there? And now Winters is about to unleash a ground army of enforcers in his battle against illegal growers.
Winters: Some would say that marijuana is just a plant, that it should be legalized, and that it is no different than alcohol.
I don't agree with it.
I've seen a decline, in my opinion, of America from great to good.
I don't want to see it decline.
I want to see it be the best it can be.
Another one here on top of the hill.
Drugs are gonna be the downfall of this country, and I'm gonna stop it.
We're gonna work our way up the I-5 corridor.
Mike B.
: There's a motorcycle cop sitting right over there.
See? He's just kind of radar-ing people from behind a bush very dangerous.
Getting through the city in one piece, you know, without getting in an accident that causes police to come is the best way to ensure that I get the patients the medicine they need.
I'm in a hurry, but not in such a big hurry that I want to get pulled over.
Narrator: After 12 hours on the road, Mike Boutin pulls up to a home in Redondo Beach.
This is just one of many deliveries he'll be making in Southern California.
But the guy who is about to receive Mike Boutin's weed is not like other clients.
He's a cop.
[Whistles.]
Lassik! That dog not coming to greet me was a huge red flag.
[Knocks on door.]
What's up? What's up, Mikey? How are you? Hey, man.
Your new place looks great.
Narrator: Mike Boutin has arrived at the final stop of a drug run that has taken him down the California coast.
I brought some really great indoroyal.
Just like Boutin's dad and brother, this guy is a cop.
I'm Nicholas.
I'm former law enforcement 15 years NYPD.
Narrator: Nicholas is a former narcotics officer whose life was turned upside down.
I have this disease called avascular necrosis.
What it does is, it affects the artery that brings blood to the femoral head of your bone.
I had a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and he said, "Nick, man," he goes, "in about a week or two, you're not gonna be able to walk.
" And I said, "come on, man.
" And two weeks went by, and I had a cane.
Two weeks went by, and I was in a wheelchair.
Two weeks went by, and I was crawling out of bed to get to the bathroom.
Narrator: To ease his symptoms of his degenerative bone disease, Nicholas turned to cannabis Black: Cannabis moves blood, and for someone with circulation problems, I had to move my blood quickly.
And that's what I did.
Narrator: Which he chooses to ingest rather than smoke.
Tastes good and clean? Yeah, man.
Good deal.
Black: If you smoke medical marijuana, you get 10 milligrams of the healthy medicine.
Where if you eat the cannabis, raw or dried, you get almost 600.
Mike B.
: Not a lot of people would allow an ex-law enforcement officer into their collective, and I could understand that.
It's unusual, but, you know, I'm comfortable with it because I come from a cop family.
- Thank you, sir.
- Sweet.
He didn't come at me sideways.
He came straight at me.
"I'm an ex-cop.
" No problem.
- Would you like some tea? - Yes.
So, basically, you're doing better.
I'm feeling good, man.
You know, the weather it's great.
Everything's falling into place.
The garden's keeping me busy.
And busy is good? Busy's good.
One of the reasons I'll spend 12 hours in a car and dodge cops and grow marijuana and bring it to people like Nick is because you know what when I see that he can even walk up steps now, I'm gonna get down here and make sure he doesn't end up back in a wheelchair.
Nick's a big part of the reason why we do what we do and patients just like him.
Cops be damned.
It's so empty.
[Scoffs.]
Narrator: Back in Vallejo, California, Matt Shotwell, once the biggest marijuana dealer in the city, visits the site of his liquidated dispensary with his girlfriend, Soraya Moore.
Remember this? Jukebox.
The jukebox that's right.
I forgot about the jukebox.
Man.
Soraya met me right when I was at my peak of my business game.
She saw me at my best.
Good morning, young lady.
Welcome to Greenwell.
Greenwell, back in its heyday it was cracking.
We were the biggest medical-marijuana collective out here.
Narrator: Shotwell sold thousands of people medical-grade marijuana at a price of nearly $400 an ounce.
I got white Russian, and I got sour diesel.
I really wanted to make a place where any patient can come by, and they can get anything that they needed to get.
We had just about everything.
It was the spot to be at.
How many patients have we had so far? 79 so far.
79 and it's only 2:00.
I was the man in downtown Vallejo.
Narrator: But now Shotwell is out of a job with an 8-year prison sentence hanging over him.
Omar said we got to find an expert.
We got to find an expert, so My lawyer, Omar, told me I have to get a cannabis expert, someone that the court recognizes, to go to bat for me and say, "he was doing this the right way.
" Let's find one.
All right, cannabis expert it's chrisconrad.
com.
I heard he's really expensive, and Omar said he's gonna cost a couple grand.
I don't have any money, anymore.
Everything's been seized, frozen, taken, so I needed to find someone that would do it for me for nothing.
Who's this other cannabis expert guy? Look at this guy.
B.
E.
Smith Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Smith, 52.
Defends medical marijuana.
So, he's up in trinity county.
So, me and soraya we're looking on the Internet for a cannabis expert, and we come across this guy, B.
E.
Smith, apparently, a pretty world-renowned cannabis expert.
He's been to jail.
I've been to jail.
I think he might be a good candidate, so I got to go up to the woods and find him.
And the display cases look.
They were all right here.
You can still see exactly where they were.
You know how many grams of weed I sold standing right here? [Chuckles.]
Going back through there with nothing in that building made me feel kind of like, "I want my glory back.
I want to repair my name and my reputation.
" Moore: You're just more capable of doing bigger things.
You cultivated this business in two years, and you can do something else.
Look, the laws are gonna change, though.
It's not always gonna be like this.
- I'm not gonna quit the game now.
- This guy's an expert.
You can be an expert.
I kind of want to be a consultant and - you should.
Absolutely.
- Use what I've learned to show these farmers, maybe, how to get their pot out of their farms and down here.
No, it's still the same.
You're still using the same It's like being a broker.
That's not what I'm saying.
Moore: Matt he can do so many other things.
He has a brilliant mind.
He's an educated man.
This isn't the only solution.
I don't believe that he needs to be cultivating again in this business.
There's money to be made and there's patients that had been blowing up the greenwell e-mail and all the other clubs they just don't have any pot because the farmers are afraid to bring it down.
You just need to worry about yourself, Matt.
You're facing criminal charges.
Well, do you have another suggestion of how I can collect an income? Shotwell: Me and soraya are not in agreement about what to do going forward.
She just wants to move on and start some new chapter, but it's a delicate balance I have to do between not going to jail and providing an income.
And there's money on the table.
Who better to do it but me? But she don't want it to be me.
Narrator: To revive his business, Shotwell is going north to procure more than just a cannabis expert.
I need to do something now.
There's a need to fill now.
I can fill it, so I think I should.
He's heading to the emerald triangle to get some weed.
This is not something that I agree with, and you know that.
All right.
Having avoided capture, Mike Boutin heads home $9,000 richer.
So, I haven't had any cell service for at least a couple hours now, and even if I did, everybody's out working.
I'm only a few miles from home right now, so I'm kind of excited, but I'm kind of hesitant and I'm anxious, too.
Narrator: Boutin left his farm vulnerable for two days.
His wife, Tawni, and their dog, Lassik, were left behind.
Tawni: Bullet puts my dog down, and then where am I? You know, so it's scary.
Mike B.
: I come around the corner, I'm gonna start trying to take in as much information as I can.
One of the first things I want to see is my German Shepherd.
If my German Shepherd's out and about roaming, everything's cool.
All right, here we are.
No German Shepherd.
[Whistles.]
[Whistles.]
Narrator: Boutin arrives home to an eerily deserted farm.
Lassik! Hello? That dog he can hear that truck a mile down the road, coming.
Hello? Lassik! I don't like this.
[Blowing.]
[Gun cocks.]
That dog not coming to greet me was a huge red flag.
Lassik! Hello? Hello? This isn't normal.
Narrator: Mike boutin returns from a two-day drug run down south.
His wife and his dog are missing.
[Blowing.]
[Gun cocks.]
Boutin fears that something's gone horribly wrong.
Hey.
You guys didn't hear me? Oh, that scared me.
I expected you to be working, Lassik to be out, and it was quiet, no one around, no one answered me.
Hey! Love you.
Love you.
When I have the type of little scare like I just had, where, you know, I get some red flags thrown in my face and I don't really know what's going on, but I know it's not normal, the range of possibilities is anywhere from "there was a police action" to "there was a thug action.
" If I came home and something had happened to my wife, I would just be lost.
How come you didn't seem happy to see me, huh? How come, man? Are you coming, or you want to go, or ? I love you, but I need to go do this, so Moore: Matt could be thrown in jail tomorrow.
I hope that he has a plan for himself outside of this industry.
It's what he needs to do.
I'm not gonna support him a second time through this if he [Bleep.]
up again, you know? [Sighs.]
[Engine turns over.]
Narrator: He was the biggest marijuana dispensary owner in Vallejo, California.
Shotwell: Vallejo, Vallejo the city of opportunity.
At least that's what the sign says.
Narrator: Now Matt Shotwell is a disgraced businessman looking to restore his stature in the weed business.
It's just a business that can't fail.
I've never seen a marijuana dispensary go out of business because it couldn't make money.
Whoever's left standing here in Vallejo after this cannabis war stands to make a lot of money.
Narrator: For growers and dealers like Shotwell, the road to a better life is tied up in a controversial plant.
Mike B.
: Cannabis is a plant, but yet it's food, it's fuel, it's housing, it's freedom.
Run on for a long time And it's also ignorance, it's lies, it's deception.
Run on for a long time It's life.
Sooner or later, gonna cut you down Narrator: The road is paved with untold risks.
Morris: Everybody who grows medical cannabis is in legal jeopardy, and I accepted those risks when I wasn't helping any children, so it would be ridiculous for me to shy away from them now.
so sweet I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet I will stop at nothing.
I'm gonna get this done one way or the other.
Narrator: The road is paved with worry and concern for a nation at war.
You just hate to see where America's gonna go if we stay on the same path.
There's a lot of money in marijuana, and it is taking over American streets.
It's a war, it's serious, and we have to stop it.
He said, "son, you got to go for the kill" Narrator: And when it comes to marijuana, all roads lead back to the Emerald Triangle.
Shotwell: When I get up there to the triangle, I got to get a cannabis expert, I need to get some farmers, and I need to get some pounds and bring them back down here to Vallejo without going to jail, without pissing off my girlfriend.
I mean, I have to come back from this some way.
I'm not just gonna wither away into nothing and be an also-ran.
I'm gonna come back from this, and I'm gonna win.
gonna cut you down