toilet. reporter: that was only the beginning. jason soon became an old-fashioned drug dealer. dunid you know that jason wa illegally selling marijuana? uh-huh. my son and i are very close. there s not much we don t share about our lives and he knew how i felt about it. how did you feel about it? i was constantly in fear for him. reporter: but in 2008, jason went legit, opening his own dispensery to sell to clients who had medical needs. it s different than it used to be. we have basically just taken the market from the street. reporter: he was on the right side of the law but walking a very fine line. listen to him describe the supply side of the equation. you get, like, a dude comes down from the mountains or wherever and slaps a duffel bag on your desk full of weed and says, here, take what you want.
jason decided to take control and he knew the perfect person to help. he called me on the phone and said, mom, i think we should buy this land and how do you feel about growing medical marijuana? i said, okay. it was just a faith thing. reporter: diane sold the beauty salon she had been running for 17 years and went into business with her son. the erwins set up a small farm where they grow pot in two greenhouses. they also have several growing operations in residential bam basements around denver. they sell it to highland health for people who have doctor s recommendations around the state. i think there is a ster stereotypical thing about people using marijuana, but there are a lot of mes out there. reporter: yes, diane smokes pot with her son. sometimes even daily. it s part of my daily lifestyle. i really enjoy it.
what s it like when you guys smoke pot together? my mom is so funny. it s like a light switches on. they say marijuana helps them deal with pain and depression. they have become advocates of what they call the cause of legalizing pot. there are so many people afraid to talk about it, and if it s in the closet, you can t really get anywhere with it, you know? you ve got to put it on the table. i think it should be a dinner table conversation. i felt really good about coming out of the closet, the illegal cannabis closet. i feel like we ve set a good model and we re working really hard to continue setting that example. reporter: but it s not that simple. while selling medical marijuana in a dispensery is legal, growing it on a farm or in a basement, that s a more murky legal area. if i get worried, i call jason. instantly, i m like, jason, i don t know about this, and he ll be like, mom, it will be fine.
here is jim spellman. i wish you could smell this through the camera. reporter: this is the new face of marijuana in colorado. i love marijuana. reporter: his name is jason erwin. he s 27 years old and he grows and sells medical marijuana. and this is his business partner, diane erwin, also known as jason s mom. i believe marijuana can change the whole world, too. together the erwins run a booming business in denver. a medical marijuana dispensery called highland health. he grows the weed, she helps sell it, all in full compliance of the law. i just raised jason to be an independent free thinker. i think you succeeded. i think so. i am very proud of my son. it wasn t always that way. when jason was in high school, the erwins had a more traditional mother/son relationship. she would, like, confiscate the pot, flush it down the
don t worry about it. and i m like, okay. reporter: but jason himself knows he s walking a fine line. one false move and his family business could go up in smoke. jim spellman, cnn, denver, colorado. and jason irwin may be one step ahead of the law for now. tomorrow we re going to hear from lawmakers who are trying to put guys like him out of business. let s return to the system we had for eight years that was not problematic, we didn t have is a dispensery on every street corner. that s like a shade above the black market. it s still not available to the masses. you still have to be like, hey, where do you get this marijuana? do you know someone? still ahead, the battle to tax soda pop. can raising soft drink prices really save our schools? that coming up right after the break.