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CNN Live Event/Special
High Profits. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired April 20, 2015 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:33] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no sympathy for these people. Why do you want to promote this in town? You got everything to lose and nothing to gain. They are parasites. They're pariahs. They're got no contribution to the society. They're preying on our community and our residents and our kids. And it's going to end badly.
BRIAN ROGERS, OWNER, BRECKENRIDGE CANNABIS CLUB: The pressure is on. One mistake and it's all over.
We're headed to Buena Vista, Colorado. We've got exactly $100,000 in cash in a bag in the back of this car. Fortunately, no one on this highway knows that. There's one of our prisons. I bet there's guys right there in that prison for doing just what we're about to do.
RONALD REAGAN, 40TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.
RICHARD NIXON, 37TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I shall continue to oppose efforts to legalize marijuana.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I inhaled frequently. That was the point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're doing now is creating the next big tobacco of our time.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a highly regulated business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about daylighting a black market activity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're on the cutting-edge of a brand-new industry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is absolutely the next gold rush. This is the green rush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the dominoes are falling. Especially when you see the economic revenue.
ROGERS: There's $2 billion to be had next year. I plan to take more than my fair share.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breckenridge is a quaint, authentic, historic town. And our brand is a family-oriented, health-centered community.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's both family friendly, but also a place where you can be yourself and let your hair down.
ROGERS: Breckinridge is a gorgeous place to live. It's a gorgeous place to bring your family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're known for arts and culture and science. And we happen to have the best ski resort in the country.
CAITLIN MCGUIRE, OWNER, BRECKINRIDGE CANNABIS CLUB: Breckenridge is a destination spot for people around the world.
ROGERS: It has about 5,000 people year round, but it brings about 1.5 million visitors annually and that was what made us decide this is the place for our marijuana business.
This is the Breckenridge Cannabis Club. This is our lovely Maura. This is the weed we sell. These are some of the edibles, some of our concentrates. All of our accessories. We sell weed-infused sodas, weed-infused candy bars.
MCGUIRE: We very specifically chose Breckenridge. It wasn't by mistake, it wasn't because we couldn't find a location in Denver. They can fight over their competition, their low margins, their security issues. We'll do business here in Breckenridge, I'm fine with that.
MCGUIRE: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, how it's going? We're snowboarding.
MCGUIRE: Awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every snowboarder's got to have pot.
MCGUIRE: My gosh. You are --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm an outsider. Yes. I got the book going on, I need the weed.
MCGUIRE: Yes. Unfortunately, we will not be able to help you out today. We are medical only at the moment.
KATHERINE GRIMM: When you look at the medical marijuana industry, it's a totally different business than a recreational industry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I come back on the 1st, what happens?
MCGUIRE: You do not need a medical marijuana license, you do not need to be a resident, as long as you're over the age of 21 and you have a valid I.D., you can walk into a cannabis shop like ours and purchase marijuana. GRIMM: Brian opened on Main Street four or five years ago, it was
medical marijuana, hoping that maybe it would switch to recreational, and it did.
ROGERS: We were down there in the tourist space for four years.
MCGUIRE: Four years.
ROGERS: Selling medical marijuana they couldn't buy.
[22:05:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brian ended up with the only medical marijuana dispensary on main street because a couple of others failed.
ROGERS: And here we are downtown paying this enormous rent, taking this enormous risk, because we'll be here when the 1st of the year comes when we're allowed to go for recreational sales to tourist. It was a huge gamble.
LARRY CHARLES: Go back, look at Prohibition in the 1920s and '30s and then fast-forward 80 years to what's happening now. A lot of parallels between the two. Once we start looking at marijuana as a commodity, it's going to be grown, it's going to be bought, it's going to be sold, it's going to be consumed. And it's going to happen like that over and over and over again.
MCGUIRE: We're starting off with some of the most beautiful places in Colorado. We'd like to open a store in Crested Butte. We'd like to open one in Steamboat Springs and Vail. Different states, different countries. I want the Breckenridge Cannabis Club to be a household name.
CHARLES: A lot of people made money selling picks and shovels during the gold rush. This is the green rush.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, there you are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a good one.
CHARLES: I would say there will be three to five billionaires minted in this industry in the next three years.
MCGUIRE: This right here, this is the real stuff. You're not going to find this on the street. This is top quality, organic bud. In 2009 when we first started we started off very small. We were growing in a garage.
ROGERS: We had our own medical marijuana cards and we had a few other patients and mostly just grew and gave that away until there was a profitable business plan that we could go forward with and that's when we got into Breckenridge.
MCGUIRE: We didn't work as hard as we did the last four years to just scrape by. We have much bigger plans than that.
ROGERS: We're headed to Buena Vista, Colorado, to check out our friend's greenhouses. We're going to be buying some marijuana from him today, a large quantity of marijuana, in fact. Hopefully gets us through the first two months.
DANA SOUX: These are a couple of the kinds so if you want to just take a look, I have this and then I have all of it pre-packaged.
ROGERS: That's what we've got going on here and here?
SOUX: Yes.
ROGERS: Yes. OK. Cool.
SOUX: This is some L.A. cheese and this some purple dream and then I have L.A. woman.
ROGERS: Always does really well. Want to count the money?
SOUX: Yes. Definitely. Let's check this out.
ROGERS: So you got (INAUDIBLE) right here.
SOUX: My gosh.
ROGERS: There you are.
SOUX: All right. Pay some bills now. Thank goodness.
MCGUIRE: I want to be the Steve Jobs of marijuana. How great would that be.
WARNER: We mandated by ordinance that they would have one year to continue on main street doing retail sales and that after that year relocate to Airport Road.
KARYN CONTIGO: I think we have an image to protect. I personally have spent 35 years of my life building this town to what it is today.
SUSAN MANIS: We have beautiful boutiques and we have great ski shops, wonderful restaurants. We've got to protect our town.
GARY FREESE: Marijuana shops on the second floor lead to the paraphernalia shops on the first floor which then further enhances activity that may not be legal.
ROGERS: Thanks.
FREESE: I think without question the identity of Breckenridge is at a tipping point.
ROGERS: You know why I love Colorado? I'm driving tons of weed back to my marijuana store in my Subaru, and it's totally legal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:12:29] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I am definitely a fitness girl and I never thought I would be able to say that. I love to run, love to do yoga, so right now I'm heading to do some mountaintop yoga. Before I do that I obviously I have to go hit yedi. I can't wait to introduce you. My bong.
I have to get out and do something when I get stoned. Contrary to what a lot of people think, stereotypically, I do not like smoking and just chilling on the couch. Yoga.
I have been working at the Breckenridge Cannabis Club a little over a year now. My dad actually runs a ministry. He's very understanding and compassionate and awesome. He is totally cool with what I do.
How is it going, guys? If you want to take it a little higher this new year, come check us out.
JEFF TODD: Can you kind of determine what your clientele is going to be. Probably seems like that day it's mostly going to be tourists.
MCGUIRE: Yes. We expect a lot of tourists. We're right on main street. We're the only downtown dispensary. Peak holiday season so there are a ton of people in town right now.
ROGERS: Caitlin is the owner of the company. She's an angel. She really is. To deal with me you have to be an angel. We used to commute two hours each way, seven days a week.
MCGUIRE: I can't imagine doing it with anybody else.
ROGERS: She is the love of my life, for sure. Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind. I grew up in a house with a loving family. My dad took great care of my mom, and so I had some great examples. I'm also a crier, in case anyone didn't notice.
TODD: What hoops did you have to jump through with the city?
[22:15:03] MCGUIRE: We got inspected by all of the different town officials. We had to get background checked by the police department. Until recently Breckenridge has been a really easy town to work with. But as of right now they've asked us to leave at end of our lease.
WARNER: The intent of the council was, we don't want these shops in the face of families, tourists, people that are conservative by nature, that might leave Breckenridge in hordes. I mean, we just don't want to turn off our tourist economy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen, our 14-year-old granddaughter came to spend two weeks with us, and the first thing she said when she got in the car is nana, where are the pot shops in Breckenridge?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what does that say about you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She lives 2,000 miles away. I said I have no idea and we're not going anywhere near Airport Road.
WARNER: Retail sales can only be done out on Airport Road which is a mile north of town. We're calling it the green light district.
GRIMM: The tourist market is on main street and the locals market is on Airport Road. Right now you have three or four dispensaries on Airport Road sharing a locals market of about 5,000 residents.
When we're talking about the millions of dollars, millions of dollars are coming from the tourists and they are coming here. It's easier. I would do it. If I were visiting a town, I'm not going to go out of my way. I'm not going to rent a car, find a bus, figure out some sort of taxi situation which, we only have one taxi in this town, to get all the way down to Airport Road, and all the way is still only a couple of miles, but a couple of miles is important in a tourist stop.
ROGERS: The explanation we were given was that we should have these sales on the skirts of town where it's a little bit more difficult to get to and out of the sight of the tourists.
WARNER: He's away from children, churches, schools.
ROGERS: It's absolutely bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
If we wanted to be just family friendly, we probably wouldn't have over 100 liquor licenses within hundreds of feet of my marijuana store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would happen if you simply took the regulations in place for alcohol retail sales and used those for marijuana.
WARNER: They're very different. You can be on the main floor. You can be on main street with a liquor store. You can --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was asking, why not just use those?
WARNER: Because --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not restrictive enough?
WARNER: Yes. This council doesn't think it's restrictive enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
GRIMM: The state passed the law that said towns basically you can do whatever you want. That's wonderful from a social experiment perspective but it's also a political environment, so at the same time everybody is trying to appease their constituents.
ROGERS: The company hasn't been able to raise enough money with all the fees due for new licenses. We had to pay next year's retail license fees on top of our medical renewals.
MCGUIRE: I mean, for four years really we've just been getting by. We've been late on our personal rent. Our personal credit right now is wrecked. We already --
ROGERS: Yes.
MCGUIRE: Have ruined it.
ROGERS: Hey, Brian and Caitlin, how you guys doing? MCGUIRE: OK.
ROGERS: Hey, thanks for coming by.
So Nick had to give us like seven grand to get by in our personal lives until the company can afford to pay our salaries which isn't going to be until January or February.
MCGUIRE: Yes. A lot of people think that we are just stoners and forget all of our bills, but really we're always robbing Peter to pay Paul. Are we going to pay this first or are we going to pay this first? How long can this vendor wait or how long can this bill wait and so we're constantly playing that shuffle game of who is going to be the least mad when we don't pay them.
ROGERS: When they don't get the money on time.
MCGUIRE: Hopefully our master plan works out.
ROGERS: Thanks, Nick.
So we're going to go to the bank and drop off our deposit. This is a personal banking account. Banks won't do business with us because our current banking situation is that this is a federally illegal profit and the banks don't want to touch it for fear of money laundering and racketeering charges.
MCGUIRE: Kicked out of three banks now I believe. One which we openly banked with as far as being a marijuana business. It was a local credit union, and they were totally fine with our marijuana money. However, just like the rest of the banks, they had federal auditors, and this summer we got kicked out of there, so we're kind of in limbo right now.
ROGERS: Yes.
MAURA FOSS: How would you like a flier for recreational marijuana? Yes, we will open on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.
SHANNON RAYNES, BRECKINRIDGE TOWN COUNCIL: I think you would probably find that there's a number of folks who live here that don't necessarily want to see that business on main street.
WENDY WOLFE, BRECKINRIDGE TOWN COUNCIL: This is certainly a new category, and all four of those shops desire to come to main street. There's no question about that.
MARK BURKE, BRECKINRIDGE TOWN COUNCIL: You know, when visitors come here, they know that Colorado has legalized marijuana. They don't know whether it's on main street or Airport Road. They know it's here. Our citizens overwhelmingly passed it so all I'm saying is let's -- let's own it and address it.
[22:20:04] I'd like to be part of history and I think this is part of history. I just don't think we realize it yet. January 1st is fast approaching. Nobody really knows what that's going to be like. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All my life my daughter didn't smoke, you know. She didn't all through high school, so for her to end up in this business is interesting. They believed in it enough. Everybody in the family has put money into it. They were working so hard and so long. They work seven days a week, they are crazy.
MCGUIRE: Cool. So are you up behind that street?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm up behind.
MCGUIRE: OK, cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brian had a dream, a big dream. Part of it was dating Caitlin, too. She was like, no, no, we're friends.
MCGUIRE: We're starting this business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're starting this business.
MCGUIRE: So he would write on calendar like day Caitlin finally says yes to dating Brian.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, I mean, I don't think that it was a life's ambition for Caitlin necessarily, but it's definitely become their life. To see they've grown and everything she's learned in the last four years and everything she's done I think is amazing, truly amazing. I don't think I could have done the same thing at her age.
MCGUIRE: I can't believe it's actually going to happen. So --
[22:25:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe my daughter owns this store. You were going to be a teacher.
(LAUGHTER)
MCGUIRE: No, I'm --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now you're playing in dope.
MCGUIRE: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, how are you?
MCGUIRE: Good. How are you doing today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm good. How are you guys?
MCGUIRE: Good.
ROGERS: So you're from New England?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Originally, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Why do you want to work here? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm very interested in the industry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where my passion is at.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really do look at it as medicine and not something just to get high off of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's where I want to be with the rest of my life.
MCGUIRE: I see that you have been here at least 500 times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: So good job. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I've spent my total here for this year is almost $10,000.
(LAUGHTER)
ROGERS: Good lord.
MCGUIRE: That's up there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I've also just made my own strain.
ROGERS: So you brought marijuana to this interview?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: Jars are bigger than ours.
ROGERS: This town is known for bad customer service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
ROGERS: And we want to be known for great customer service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.
ROGERS: Have you ever seen a co-worker being rude to a customer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ROGERS: What was your reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I usually said do you want to go outside and smoke a bowl?
(LAUGHTER)
And it worked every time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sales side, I'm very customer oriented and talking to people about cannabis.
ROGERS: I assume you smoke weed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. Yes.
ROGERS: Are you high right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
ROGERS: Are you high right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
ROGERS: Are you high right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean, I was earlier, but not anymore, like it went away.
(LAUGHTER)
ROGERS: Sure. That's understandable. OK.
MCGUIRE: What do you think the most marijuana is that you have consumed in one sitting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe like 14 grams.
ROGERS: That's a hefty chunk.
MCGUIRE: I think you might be a winner.
ROGERS: What do you love about marijuana?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I thought about that on the way when I was sitting out there today, and the only thing I could think about is way back in the day when all the Indians were here before we were all here and they found this plant and they ate it or they drank it or they did this or that, and they were oh, I feel good and they got up and they said, would you like to have a good day, that's what I love about this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: BCC, this is Maura. Yes, we will be open at 8:00 in the morning, January 1st. So you just need to bring a valid photo I.D. proving that you're over the age of 21 and it can be from anywhere in the world.
ROGERS: We have two managers on duty plus Caitlin and I, plus our sales staff. You might see that we were a little heavy on the labor budget at first, but we just want to make sure everything is run very really.
MCGUIRE: My mental well-being is currently shot. It's just a touch under 48 hours. We have been going insane this whole week and it hasn't been getting any better the closer that we get to the 1st.
ROGERS: We're checking I.D.s at the door and at the point of sale. So there will be two checks.
MCGUIRE: We're on the tourist map for Breckenridge and this is what they get when they come into town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on the map. It's impossible for us to move.
MCGUIRE: Yes. Yes, it's official.
ROGERS: That's pretty good. I feel like we need to get it turned clockwise perhaps.
I've always had three rooms in the store. One was storage, it was, you know, almost a waste of space. One was an office that was not necessary to be downtown and this high rent and one was our marijuana sales room and in the last two days we have transformed it from one usable room to three usable rooms. We're going to have a gift shop and then two marijuana sales rooms.
We hired 18 new people to top out our two employees that we've had until now so it's going to just be -- I mean, a completely different animal.
MCGUIRE: This just needs to be the fast room so that we can sell weed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In and out. In and out.
MCGUIRE: We need people in and out, in and out, in and out. I want a line out the door, but I don't want town council thinking that we can't handle the sales that we're getting. I want to make it look like we can handle whatever someone throws at us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: Even if it's 1,000 tourists out the door on day one, I want to show the town that we've got this and that we're going to take care of everyone's needs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So I've got the schedule sent out. I'm slowly hearing back from the employees that they have seen the schedule. I've told them to confirm with me that they saw the schedule so I know -- we're dealing with a bunch of stoners here.
MCGUIRE: Exactly. The most that we've ever done in a day is probably around $4,000, $5,000.
ROGERS: 001-001. Number one in the town. We've waited for this for two years. Good job, us.
MCGUIRE: I just can't fathom that we're going to do like $25,000 to $30,000 in a day. That just seems impossible.
We've been putting out fires left and right the last couple of days. The company that is supposed to be tracking all of our inventory has not gotten the tags out that we needed on time. Twelve hours ago I was wondering if I would be able to open tomorrow or not.
ROGERS: We're nervous. I'm nervous. I know Caitlin is nervous. She was on the verge of tears a couple of times, so she's definitely nervous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 500 lunch bags OK?
MCGUIRE: 500 lunch bags?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: Do they have 600?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they have more.
MCGUIRE: Might as well -- do they have 700?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: Just get, just get -- do they have 800?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- 800 and then you're done.
MCGUIRE: Do 800.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, bye.
ROGERS: Controlled chaos last few days.
MCGUIRE: We don't even have our labels yet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 3,500 labels that was all they had. Wanna buy some more?
MCGUIRE: OK. Cool, 3,500 labels. We won't be legally compliant without those. OK, cool, perfect. As hard as it's been, I know both Brian and I have had a great time building this business from the ground up together. I can't imagine doing it with anybody else.
ROGERS: All right, let's wrap. Let's do it. Back to work, everyone out here. Back to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [22:35:22] MCGUIRE: Oh my, God. 17 minutes.
ROGERS: 7:43 a.m., probably 20 degrees, blustery.
MCGUIRE: I'm freaking out. I'm a little nervous. We haven't slept a week and I'm ready to go home right now.
ROGERS: Yeah.
MCGUIRE: We haven't had one sale.
WENDY WOLFE: Everyone on council believes that some discretion is very important with this. This should not be in your face.
ROGERS: Your cash drawer, you got 300 bucks in here. I want you to log in and make sure it logs you first. Why don't you count your drawer, should be $300 down to the penny. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From a personal perspective 20 years in law
enforcement, I never thought I'd see this day come.
ROGERS: All right, guys. One or two minutes, ready to go?
CROWD: Yeah.
ROGERS: All right. We're good? Super, thanks. You ready to go? Good to go? Courtney, you're good?
WOLFE: you know, once you allow something it's very hard to go back.
MCGUIRE: It's 8 o'clock.
ROGERS: I brought you, your first customer...
MCGUIRE: Mommy.
ROGERS: Mommy dearest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready for this?
MCGUIRE: We'll find out.
DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT SHOW ANCHOR: Light up, America. On New Year's Day Colorado will become the first state in the country to allow recreational marijuana sales.
ROGERS: Hi, everyone. Get your I.D's ready. Is everyone ready to come in? Are you cold and ready?
CROWD: Yes.
ROGERS: I.D's, I.D's, I.D's. Look at this it is great. All right, give me a little noise. Let's do it. It's the first day, end of prohibition. It's the end, the end of prohibition again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I love you so much. I'm so proud of you.
ROGERS: You're first, my man. Let me see that I.D. real quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yup.
ROGERS: All right, Colorado resident coming up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
ROGERS: Welcome Texas, Georgia.
MCGUIRE: Guys, thank you so much for coming in. If you do want to cycle in here, I think they are finishing up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's gonna be 25 a gram and before tax it comes out to 31 after tax. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone hearing from the police to the business
owners say, they do not expect sort of marijuana Mardi Gras type atmosphere. That's because it's still illegal to smoke marijuana in public.
SHANNON HAYNES, POLICE OFFICER: As long as they are not smoking it in front of me, then they are all right. But you know, if they are consuming in public, that's problematic and against the law, and we won't tolerate it.
BRADY ALLEN, POLICE OFFICER: As long as people are being responsible we don't have issue. It's, it's irresponsible behavior that causes all of our problems. That's why we have jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Attention, everybody. We are cash only. If you do not have any cash, the nearest ATM is located across the street.
ROGERS: We'll get some guidance from the DOJ really soon so we can --
HAYNES: Yes.
ROGERS: Really access bank accounts because, you guys don't have to respond to a burglary call.
HAYNES: No, we don't. We don't.
ROGERS: I don't want you to have to come either...
HAYNES: Right.
ROGERS: Because that's the reason my money is gone, right.
HAYNES: And we're good, but you know you never know.
ROGERS: And no one needs to get shot over some money.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy New Year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will come. It will come around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.
ROGERS: 800, 900, 10 hundred, 11 hundred, thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that we have stores here. People are stocking their shelves and people are standing outside just having their I.D's checked and they are buying cannabis.
MCGUIRE: We're located at 226 south main street in Breckenridge. We're directly across the street from Starbucks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just legally purchased marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a day to remember. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you're somebody that likes gets anxious or
paranoid when you smoke, I would definitely recommend this one. These are all really, really awesome strains. We wanted to start out with some of our best ones.
MCGUIRE: We're at a little over $15,000, and it is four hours end the day.
DAN SKYE, EDITOR-IN- CHIEF, HIGH TIMES: This is a major tourist hub for the state, so, you know, you have all these people from all over the country coming here. When they go back to their home states and tell what was going on in Breckenridge, just more money for Colorado.
UNIDENTIFIED MAEL: We have 100.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not selling top shelf, we're not selling by the ounce, weir selling by the gram.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We started gay marriage. we thought that would be kind of a big commitment just to be part of history. So we came here and did this instead.
(LAUGHTER) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted my picture taken, and I wanted my kids
to show it to my grandkids and say, look, I was with grandma, and we bought weed legally.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Here we go guys. Thank you.
HAYNES: You are very welcome. Enjoy your vacation.
MCGUIRE: Everyone has been in the best moods. We haven't had any complaints about lines or wait or...
ROGERS: Or taxes.
MCGUIRE: or the cold or cash only.
ROGERS: Because we have taxes. Taxes in this town are 24 percent.
SKYE: 24 percent on -- cannabis?
ROGERS: On cannabis.
SKYE: Jesus.
ROGERS: Yeah.
[22:40:09] SKYE: It is absolutely unbelievable to us, that this has happened so quickly. And it is now the dominoes are falling. Especially when they see the economic revenue, you're just going to change the world.
ROGERS: Did you see the demographic in that line?
(CROSSTALK) ROGERS: Old dudes, old ladies, people from other countries.
MCGUIRE: We've had so many Colorado residents too.
ROGERS: We've already raised $5,000 in sales tax today.
MCGUIRE: Today?
ROGERS: Today.
MCGUIRE: They can't -- they're not. There's no way they are going to kick us out.
ROGERS: That's over a million a year -- that's $2 million a year. As in even all of today. We'll raise $15,000 in sales tax today.
MCGUIRE: We should go drop a check off for the town and be like, are you sure you want us to leave?
ROGERS: We'll still be like a publishers clearing house check.
MCGUIRE: That's what I'm saying.
ROGERS: We got $2 million.
MCGUIRE: So I'm saying be like -- now how is our image for Breckenridge?
ROGERS: Yeah. How is this for an image?
MCGUIRE: We're funding all your jobs.
ROGERS: We'd like to buy Breckenridge, thanks.
(LAUGHTER) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colorado, January 1st, go get weed soda and
quench your thirst. Woo. Woo. Woo, weed for sale.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [22:45:19] MCGUIRE: BCC, this is Caitlin. We aren't currently sold out. We're actually headed to our garden right now to bring some more products over.
ROGERS: Should I get these boxes of weed back to the store. Normally, it would have taken us -- you know, a week to sell what we went through in five hours this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Santa.
ROGERS: What we all desire.
(LAUGHTER) ROGERS: The weed you need just to get through.
MCGUIRE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MCGUIRE: There is still a line...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes we are.
MCGUIRE: Out to the next block. I can't believe this line hasn't light up once.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so these are the strains that we have available.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've told you, it's really strong.
ROGERS: The easiest job we have is just checking I.D's. This guy didn't show up. You know you hire someone and they sign up for the schedule and then don't come. So Caitlin's down there right now, checking I.D's and I am checking the I.D. book, or the rules book, for what I'm allowed to accept here.
MCGUIRE: How are you guys doing today? I'm getting used to all these new I.D's. You guys are out here from Nebraska?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
MCGUIRE: Very nice. Let's check this two, thank you.
ROGERS: 1991, you're good to go. Can I see your I.D., Please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this happening?
ROGERS: We've heard that from a lot of people. They like, we were just skiing and then all of a sudden weed was legal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel really lucky to be here. Just so happens now we were here for the first day that it was legal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was crazy just buying it and then going to eat breakfast with it and then bringing it back to come to get some more.
(LAUGHTER) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came all the way from Mexico City just to be one
of the first to buy recreational marijuana, the legal way. I stopped by because I know every cent I put into marijuana, goes to the black market and the cartels. If this works out in Colorado, maybe one day with Mexico we can do it and stop the killings, stop the black market and, I don't know, what's all the fuss about, making it illegal.
CHAZ JACO, INDEPENDENT MARIJUANA PROFESSIONAL: Guys want any cookies? People will hit me up. Out of nowhere they see the scarf and ask me if I have pot on me. I'm like, I mean, are you -- first like check to see their age. I mean, I'm in the going to sell to anybody or donate to anybody that's gonna -- you know, be under but, yeah, it's pretty cool. These people have been donating anywhere from like $20 to $80 and mainly 40 bucks, but it's pretty cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see. I'll do 40? JACO: Yeah.
ROGERS: You've got to be (beep) kidding me.
JACO: Yeah, marijuana. You got some papers. Want some papers, man?
ROGERS: You can't be selling pot out here.
JACO: I know, I was just donating, bro. People are donating.
ROGERS: Yeah. It's not legal in Colorado.
JACO: See, it's like on different accounts, like -- I give it to you on one account.
ROGERS: Sure, but then they pay you for it.
JACO: It's like I gave them and they like, here's some money like.
ROGERS: Yeah, that's called a sale.
JACO: No.
ROGERS: They define it real clearly, I promise. Just because you might not make a profit? That's just a bad business model. It doesn't make it legal.
JACO: No matter what the pace is, you're getting a constant --
ROGERS: No. You're taking -- if there are 100 customers and you take five of them, you took five percent -- you took five percent of my business. I would do -- if five more came, I would have done $105 -- 105 customers.
JACO: Well, it's never getting down the line because it's always staying packed but --
ROGRS: No, you're not making sense. In 12 hours...
JACO: Yeah.
ROGERS: If 100 -- people were going to come in, right, and you take five away, I only have 95 people left, and if --
JACO: Well, enough five people, but there's a max amount of people that can go in.
ROGERS: If 20 people show up and do what you're doing, I'll have zero sales.
JACO: Yeah (beep).
ROGERS: Try to tell that, look dude, you've got a line all day. So if I steal five customers from you, it's not like stealing because you got customers still. No one can pay you to grow weed in Colorado unless you have that state license that cost us 20,000. You pay $20,000 for this license, that's what attracted all these people. My advertising $500 a page in the newspaper, I pay hundreds of dollars a month for different websites and you're going to stand here and take customers away. I came out here first, OK?
JACO: Yeah.
ROGERS: Give me a solid.
JACO: We're dude.
ROGERS: The next time I won't even come outside. I'll call the police. Thanks, Chaz. We've got cash. It's cash only. Everyone is cool with that, all right? Sorry, guys. End of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, really?
ROGERS: I'm sorry, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I you close at 10.
ROGERS: Well, we -- our last transaction is definitely at 10. So I apologize for any confusion, but 8 a.m. tomorrow. All right, thanks.
[22:49:56] ROGERS: All right. Way to kick some ass. Good job, first day really working there? First day really working there?
MCGUIRE: Did you guys count your tip jars yet? They've made like an extra 60 or 70 bucks over there.
ROGERS: Wow. Cait?
MCGUIRE: Yup.
ROGERS: How did we end up?
MCGUIRE: Over 47,000.
ROGERS: $47,000. Holy shit.
MCGUIRE: That's so much unorganized money, wed o not.
ROGERS: We do that about 30 times our normal daily sales for medical marijuana by switching to retail marijuana. This is why we had to be open on the 1st.
MCGUIRE: Unreal.
ROGERS: This is what happens when you legalize marijuana.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [22:54:27] MCGUIRE: I'm lying down because my head hurts really,
really bad. And I'm tired and nauseous and I need to lie down. This is not what I expected success to feel like. All right, I think it's money. I'm sleeping on money, by the way.
(LAUGHTER) MCGUIRE: Totally weird going from not having any money at all, to
having so much money that I don't even know how much money I have because I can't keep track of it all. I never thought I would get tired of counting cash, but turns out you can get tired of that, too. So, people are asking us if we're going to sell out of weed or not, which is a pretty good question. We might sell out of weed.
JOHN WARNER, MAYOR OF BRECKENRIDGE: I'm glad you're doing so well. It's great. One of the reasons I voted for amendment 64 was, it takes the criminal act of purchasing marijuana out of the hands of criminals. You don't have a black market. You have a good proprietor like Brian selling to you across the counter. It's an above board deal. Say what say is a gram price?
ROGERS: 25 bucks.
WARNER: OK.
ROGERS: An ounce now is $700.
WARNER: When I was growing up, it's like -- a dime bag.
ROGERS: Yeah, $10 and $5.
WARNER: As an elected representative I am going to be cautious, and I think our council has been cautious and we want to do the right thing for our voters, but we want to do the right thing for our brand.
MCGUIRE: In not even our first two days of business, we have sold $100,000 of marijuana. In 20 days -- is that -- is that -- no, never mind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. If you did $50,000 a day for 20 days, that's a million dollars.
MCGUIRE: Is that $1 million?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those are real numbers.
ROGERS: A million dollars. I'm going to text my grandmother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys are going to be millionaires in a month. Who does that?
ROGERS: I think we're swinging this council.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
ROGERS: If we're not, we're going to get a new council. We did $15,000 in sales tax yesterday.
WARNER: I'm doing the math.
(LAUGHTER) WARNER: Well, I'm glad you're so successful.
ROGERS: Thanks, John.
WARNER: Wish you the best.
ROGERS: Thanks for stopping by, by the way. Appreciate that.
WARNER: Talking to Wendy and I kept hearing about the line across the street.
ROGERS: Oh, yesterday.
WARNER: I'm going to go see it.
ROGERS: Yesterday it was even bigger.
WARNER: We'll see that.
ROGERS: Thanks a lot.
WRANER: All right. You guys have a good day, and enjoy yourselves.
ROGERS: Yeah. You don't want anything for the road?
WARNER: No, I'm going to stay straight. When I'm not mayor, maybe I'll take it.
ROGER: Yup.
WARNER: I kidded Brian, I said, Brian, if you were an asshole it would be a lot easier to send you down to airport road.
MIKE DUDICK, OWNER, BRECKENRIDGE GRAND VACATIONS: I've been here 25 years and I've never seen anything like this at all. I don't think it's a good idea to be on Main Street. I think there's enough sensibility to go time out. We're going too fast on this. We need to listen to the constituents.
DAVID LEOPOLD, RESIDENT: I have three boys. I've got two in college and got a 12-year-old at home and I'm also a chaplain at the boy scouts. I'm involved with the kids, and I want to do what I can to protect them.
ROGERS: Edibles are a problem right now.
MCGUIRE: EdiPure can't fill out any orders until next week. Ganjala are so busy at their store that they're suspending their wholesale line.
ROGERS: What about, what about -- oh geez.
MCGUIRE: Yeah.
ROGERS: Because their store (inaudible).
MCGUIRE: Their store, doing all of their sales. They say too high of a markup. It doesn't make any sense for them to run their wholesale.
ROGERS: Just sell them half price to us. We're just about out of edibles already, in two days.
LEOPOLD: There's a reason why these edibles look like candy. They are trying to get our youth addicted to these things, too. They don't care.
DUDUICK: The anti-marijuana main street people will be active and will be mobilized and will be organized and will be passionate about communicating their message to others and getting the vote out.
