CE Special – Behind the legal marijuana boom in California with Cheryl Shuman and 3rd Degree

Summary: Behind the legal marijuana boom in California Source - 3rd Degree News - New Zealand Should New Zealand legalise pot for medicinal use? Across the Pacific, there’s a billion-dollar industry growing in California, and it’s all legal. 3rd Degree reporter Sarah Hall takes a peek inside the pot shops of Los Angeles and meets up with Cheryl Shuman – the “Martha Stewart of Marijuana” – making millions from the cannabis boom. Driving through the manicured streets of Beverly Hills, Cheryl Shuman looks every inch the Hollywood wife. She’s blonde, glamorous and even has the Ferrari to match. But there is more to Ms Shuman than meets the eye. She is a "ganja-preneur" – one of a growing number of Americans making their millions out of marijuana. "It’s just like the dotcom boom from years ago," she says. "This is the potcom boom, the green rush. Everyone is rushing in to get their position. Those in first will be the billionaires of this industry." In California cannabis has gone mainstream. It was legalised for medical patients in 1996. Nearly 20 years on, pretty much anyone can get a prescription. Now 17 states, or more than a third of the United States, have followed suit legalising medical marijuana. Suddenly there's serious cash to be made. So how did Ms Shuman become a cannabis queen? Like many Americans, she is a master of re-invention, growing up dirt poor on an Appalachian tobacco farm – so poor she featured on a story about the country’s most impoverished families. But she was determined to claw her way out of poverty, making her first million in her 20s by clipping coupons. A few years ago her glamorous life came to an abrupt end when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. To help with the nausea and pain, a friend suggested she smoke cannabis. To her surprise not only did Ms Shuman come off her medication, her cancer disappeared. "You learn when you get sick how precious time is. Cannabis gave me my life back, and every single minute I have I feel it's my duty and obligation – to the plant, to the community and people in general – to let them know what is possible. Using cannabis saved my life," she says. While it’s absolutely medically unproven Ms Shuman's cancer went into remission because of cannabis, she’s become the poster girl for legalising cannabis in the United States. "While not everyone will agree with my philosophies or what I do for a living,, they can’t deny that cannabis is here. People are interested. It’s a hot topic and I think by having a mainstream face for it, the girl next door. I could be your mum, aunt, sister or teacher and it allows people to listen to me." [powerpress url="http://media.blubrry.com/sjgmedia/content.blubrry.com/sjgmedia/CE_Special_Marijuana_Boom.mp3"] . . .