Weed Country (2013) s01e05 Episode Script
Evil Around the Corner.
Previously on "Weed Country" The cops invaded an illegal grow and took down a whopping $100 million in plants.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
One farmer out to save a young child with epilepsy What a cute kid.
had his entire crop cut down Oh [Bleep.]
and turned to an old friend for help.
Let's do it.
A former dispensary owner desperate to get back in the game I don't support this.
Went against his girlfriend's wishes and headed north to the Emerald Triangle.
Yeah, baby, it's "go" time.
And the turf war between Mike Boutin and his neighbor You lost again?! --- Pushed his wife, Tawni, to the edge.
It's just bull [Bleep.]
Deep in the heart of the northern California mountains, marijuana growing season is under way.
You're growing in your front yard? Oh, yeah.
This is the Emerald Triangle, 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.
I mean, look at the size of that.
It's a decades-old battle between cops It is a problem of epidemic proportions.
- Dealers - It's just a business that can't fail.
Narrator: And growers.
There's nothing more American than a man producing a product that people want.
They stand to make millions or be locked up for years.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
We got somebody running.
This is Weed Country.
Yeah, I'm breaking the law on TV.
So what? At Grace farms, a professional surveying team has arrived.
Boutin's neighbors called the police to inform them that Boutin trespassed on their property with his garden, and they intend to prove it.
I don't have a knife.
He doesn't have a knife.
You're on their side, obviously.
And she is hiring an official surveyor - with official equipment to come here.
- Tawni, who are you raising your voice to? The man that is on their side and is gonna come here and side with them from the sounds of it.
Hello? Who is this? On the other end of the phone is a sheriff's deputy.
The department is taking seriously the neighbors' claim that half of Boutin's plants illegally grow on their land, a claim which is backed up by the property line marked by the surveyors.
--- I get that.
That's why I stopped it.
Go away now! He didn't start getting yelled at.
Stop talking, Tawni! You've already done too [Bleep.]
much talking! For Tawni, the dispute became personal when the neighbors targeted the farm's deer by putting up a sign welcoming hunters.
- It's just [Bleep.]
but, we didn't do - I know, anything to those [Bleep.]
people for them to act the way they are.
--- But I think you have to start thinking about this a little different.
It's a civil matter.
--- Yeah, okay.
Unwanted attention to their crop could lead to Mike and Tawni's arrest.
I've had it.
Tawni's scared because we face the proposition of being arrested and going to state penitentiary.
This is [Bleep.]
Think you did me any favors by yelling at the [Bleep.]
cop? The bottom line still remains that when you have neighbor problems, when they pick up the phone and call officials, officials are obligated to come out and do something about it.
You know what? Maybe I get to go to jail today because you can't keep your [Bleep.]
mouth shut.
Maybe I should be the one going to jail.
Maybe you should stay the [Bleep.]
in this house when they get here.
He already told me on the phone, Mike, that we are illegally growing weed on their property - That's not true.
- and he is gonna take care of it.
He's gonna take care of it! You get what you're doing here? Get a grip on yourself! God! I can't [Bleep.]
believe this! Is it a vehicle? I can't tell.
Go back.
Just click on it and it'll pull it up.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson and officer Andrea Carlson evaluate surveillance photos of vehicles that were just posted.
Got some photos from cameras they had set up near a trailhead close to the big outdoor marijuana grow.
We have to check on them, see where it leads us.
They can use the photos to track down suspect vehicles photographed near illegal grows.
Typical.
There's one leaf in the way.
A tree is just right in the way.
I know.
You can cut that right there off and they'd have been just perfect.
--- Pisses me off.
But then Thomson gets a possible break.
Huh.
Look at that.
--- It does look like a white guy.
--- --- With a visual on a suspect, lieutenant Thomson has another piece of the puzzle and is one step closer to making an arrest.
We're not looking for one part of it.
I want bodies.
I want bodies and I want plants.
I'm not getting no power on this car at all.
Yeah, you got to downshift, man.
Don't be afraid to downshift.
Former dispensary owner Matt Shotwell and fellow drug runner Skweaz are headed to Mike Boutin's unannounced.
I have a feeling when I get to the Emerald Triangle, a lot of my problems are gonna be solved.
It's where all the gold is.
It's up there.
It's the green gold, and I'm going to get it.
Despite facing eight years in prison, Shotwell is planning to bring a large amount of pot back to Vallejo to sell.
Niño, what up?! --- I'm going up to Trinity County! --- What do you think I'm going up there for? Pick up some tree.
--- All right.
What's up, brother? Oh, man, it's good to see you, dude.
I run into one of my old buddies, El niño.
His name is Elizar, and he's a Filipino rastafarian, just a good-hearted guy, man, and he was my bodyguard at Greenwell when I first opened up.
When you're coming down, you know, from where you're at, - Yeah.
- 'cause you're bringing something back? - Yeah.
- Okay.
They'll be looking for a 20, mid-20's white boy with a nice car.
That's the profile they look for.
Perfect, then.
If I see a cop White boy, mid-20's to, you know, to 30's coming down.
My Porsche looks like it's going 100 Miles an hour just sitting there.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Some stupid-ass cop sees a shiny car with some white dude in it.
Pull me over right now, please, officer, while my homies roll down the 101 with 5 pounds in the trunk.
Suck on that.
If there should be any trouble, splash a little bit of hard liquor right here and have a budweiser can.
If a cop shows signs that he's gonna, you know, pull one of you over, you have to sacrifice yourself.
What you do is just kind of start swerving and throw your beer can out the window.
You'll get pulled over.
You'll get arrested.
You'll get checked.
You're gonna pass.
So you don't drink.
You just get the beer on your shirt so he thinks that.
- He's the bait.
- Right.
Pull me over.
I'm gonna tie your whole [Bleep.]
fleet up.
All your little cops, I'm gonna tie up on the side of the road for an hour with a sobriety roadside test while I blow zero.
- All right, man, cool.
- Bless.
One love.
- One love, man.
- I'll be back.
I'll be back with the tree.
This ain't your property and it ain't gonna be.
That's where you're wrong [Bleep.]
With the police on the way, Mike Boutin has gone down to the disputed property line to defend his crop.
[Bleep.]
You.
Oh, listen to you.
You can always tell when people have come to the end of their intellect when all they have left to say is "[Bleep.]
you [bleep.]
You.
" Y'all ought to get on your own [Bleep.]
property.
The insults and bad blood lead Tawni to make a rash decision.
It's way harder on Tawni than it is on me.
She can be loving, but she can be in a rage.
Driving down to the middle of the fight, Tawni heads right into the center of the neighbors' angry wrath.
Tawni, leave the wildlife alone.
--- You're a [Bleep.]
Tawni, I need you to go do what you're supposed to do.
Hey, someone grab that dog.
Grab that [Bleep.]
dog.
--- In the Emerald Triangle Tawni, come here! when it comes to neighbors Tawni! It can go from good --- to bad --- To violent.
--- The act of harvesting a plant is kind of declaring victory.
But a helicopter could land that day and throw you in a cage.
--- Tawni, leave the wildlife alone.
--- --- An altercation with the neighbors is escalating out of control.
Hey, someone grab that dog.
Grab that [Bleep.]
dog.
--- And with the police on the way Tawni, come here! It's only getting worse.
Tawni! Now! --- --- --- --- You don't own any land [Bleep.]
wad.
--- --- You need to stop disrespecting me.
Now, get! Get! Now! Now! Now.
- You fat, sloppy, - Now! Go! --- Mike Boutin must calm down the situation before it gets completely out of hand.
This is our property.
And I'm sure you'll find out in your life that you got to pay a lot of attention to girls, but these are my girls.
People can laugh at me all they want to about talking to your plants, but, hey, they can listen.
Growers B.
E.
Smith and his grandson Aaron are joined by Nate Morris in B.
E.
's garden.
They're inspecting their crop in order to determine if it's ready to harvest.
Harvest too soon and the plants won't reach their full potency.
Wait too long and risk getting ripped off.
I've had my gardens cut down.
Or worse, getting raided by cops and thrown in jail.
I'm not 100% sure that I won't get busted.
How's it been out here? We haven't had any action, because this little valley here, we don't create a problem in the county.
If a cop had to come in here, it's an all-day excursion.
Absolutely.
B.
E.
bases his decision on years of experience and intuition These girls, they know us.
You can just stand next to them and communicate with them, more or less, because you're at peace with them and they're at peace with you.
While Nate uses refined science.
When you're looking at the trichomes under a scope, they're like a yellowish color.
Trichomes on a pot plant are tiny hairs where a sticky residue forms to protect the plant from insects and disease.
When a plant is ready to harvest, they will resemble small yellow or Amber crystals.
Look at the crystals on this, Nate.
Oh, wow.
You almost need sunglasses.
I've looked at plants and noticed that they were yellow, and I thought that that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
- Right.
- But that yellow is CBD's.
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, CBD's counter the effects of THC and are alleged to have medicinal properties.
Nate has tested B.
E.
'S plants, and they do have the right amount of CBD's for him to make a medicinal oral extract for Ben Jacobson - Hi.
Catherine? - Yes.
Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you.
One that won't get the boy high but may help him with his severe epilepsy.
Ben had multiple seizures every day since he was 14 weeks old.
Children die of this all the time.
Cannabidiol has this potential to be an effective antiseizure medication.
- You can see the Amber.
- Yeah, inside.
Okay.
There's literally 200,000 children just like Ben in America.
When that diagnosis hits, it shouldn't be a death sentence.
I mean, you can solve this problem with a flower, and they're proving it.
Almost need a ladder to get up on these plants.
Well, we will use a ladder probably.
You can put the bud in here and take your basket with you.
I'll meet you on the other side.
The plump buds reveal a bounty of high-grade medical marijuana, allowing for an early harvest.
The act of harvesting a plant is kind of declaring victory.
So many things can go wrong when you're growing that you don't know that you pulled it off until you harvest.
In the back of your head, you know tweakers could come and shoot you and take your garden.
Spider mites and powdery mildew can just destroy it while you watch.
You know, a helicopter could land that day and cut it all down and throw you in a cage.
Look how nice this is.
It's almost the size of my arm.
Yeah.
I hear a chopper.
Nate Morris has joined B.
E.
Smith at his farm for harvest.
It's a time when growers are most vulnerable to marijuana thieves And to the law.
I hear a chopper.
While investigating the suspect vehicle Are you ready? --- Lieutenant Matt Thomson spots a large grow.
--- --- [Bleep.]
You.
That's just how simple it is.
You mother [Bleep.]
taught me how to kill, and you [Bleep.]
punish me for growing a plant? 1963 to 1969, I fought in the military in Vietnam.
They sent me as a well-trained soldier to Vietnam to kill human beings.
I did a damn good job.
I was decorated.
I was promoted very quickly.
I had a big burden placed upon me when I was 20 years old.
Sorry.
I can't even do it.
Let's go to a different subject.
B.
E.
came home from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder and fled to the mountains to escape the horrible memories.
When I got back from Vietnam, I smoked my first joint, and I knew I found my drug.
And I'm talking using it as medicine for my disability.
Home from one conflict, B.
E.
found himself on the losing side of another.
Just blows my mind.
They taught me how to kill a human being, and then when I came home, I grew a plant and they throw me in [Bleep.]
prison.
I spent over half my life fighting in wars.
I'm gonna still be in a war when it comes to cannabis forever.
I guess it's time to go.
Nate must leave B.
E.
's farm without being identified if he expects to get medicine to Catherine's son, Ben.
Ben doesn't have the option of waiting for me to plant another farm next year.
Ben needs medicine right now, and I promised his mother I would find it for him.
Just got to get out of here.
This place gives me the creeps right now.
You know, this is a really hot war, and cops use some pretty extraordinary techniques to track people like me down and figure out what we're up to.
Taking with him the weed that has already been harvested, Nate hopes to stay one step ahead of the law.
- Hey, Omar.
- How you doing? Deputy Omar Brown arrives to investigate Mike Boutin's volatile dispute with his neighbor.
--- No, and you know what? I'm glad to see you, actually, because you know what? I've known you for a long time and I respect you, and so we just need to have a conversation is all.
What I want to do is I want to make sure nobody is [Bleep.]
gonna hurt anybody.
Nobody's gonna do that, dude.
Did you get my e-mail that said we don't even have a gun on this farm? - And they're not our enemies.
- Yeah, and we are not, either.
We got a call today that there was a neighbor dispute, but it also involved a marijuana grow, so they asked the narcotics office to come down and respond to that call.
What I'm concerned about now is, how do I keep you from at each other's throats from here on out? - Well, Omar, yes, yes.
- That's what I'm concerned about.
I've known Mike off and on for about, at least six years.
When I first encountered him, we came in and we kicked his door, did a search warrant.
Didn't take any of that, that time.
I want you to calm down from what I heard earlier.
Just trying to de-escalate the whole thing.
If I can tell that this is where this property line is, those plants aren't on your property, whether they were criminally put there or not with the intent to grow on someone else's property.
If the surveyor did his job, - Which I don't think he did.
No! - You don't think he did a good job? Then the only thing you can do there is hire a different surveyor to do a better job.
The issue we're dealing with here, - But now you're here because, - The issue we're dealing with here is two neighbors that almost got violent with each other.
I don't even believe that.
No, that's the issue we're dealing with.
Omar, I swear to you, man, I don't want to be thought of as the thug or the typical marijuana guy or this or that or the other thing.
I got rid of those firearms.
I want somebody to tell that guy that he can't act like a thug, because as far as I'm concerned, here's the thing.
You see, I can't.
Nobody can go tell your neighbor to act reasonable.
You know, and you can wonder why people are [Bleep.]
all you want to, but the fact is people can be [Bleep.]
We're either legal, as I contend, or we're not, and if I'm gonna to jail for it anyway, let's get it over with.
The amount of marijuana you're growing is not covered by your medical protection.
Sure it is.
- How many total plants you got? - I would say, I would call it 60.
-120? - What the hell you just say? -120 total.
Is that how many I have? I don't know.
Boutin's crop is on the verge of police investigation.
You know, it might be over that pseudo federal limit, - but the fact is they're very, very small.
- There is no pseudo federal limit.
Marijuana is illegal on the federal level, and I'm a cop, and so it's my job to enforce that illegality aspect.
This year, I'm doing what I always do.
I'm, I'm saving my farm.
You're in complete violation of the ordinance.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
Marijuana is illegal, all right, on the federal level, and I'm a cop, and so it's my job to enforce that illegality aspect.
This year, I'm doing what I always do.
I'm, I'm saving my farm.
You're in complete violation of the ordinance.
However, the only way the ordinance applies is because it is a nuisance ordinance.
Right.
The only way the ordinance applies is if it's in response to a complaint.
Right.
Nobody's complained.
And if it's not a complaint, it's not a nuisance.
County law requires a formal complaint about marijuana to trigger an investigation.
In my experience, as these frickin' complaints have come, most of them are motivated by this kind of thing, bad neighbors.
Today's complaint was about a property dispute.
If the neighbors call about Boutin's weed and he's over the legal limit, he will be busted.
Omar is a great guy.
No doubt about it.
But let's not forget he's already kicked down my door once.
He could and would do it again.
I'm going to a little, nondescript building that I'm gonna use as a temporary laboratory.
Nate fled B.
E.
's farm when the cops flew over in a helicopter.
He worries that he's a marked man.
I've taken some extra precautions just 'cause the risks are a little bit bigger for this.
I'm watching over my shoulder, making sure no one sees where I'm at.
Because Nate is going to create an illegal medicine he plans on giving to a child, his punishment could be severe.
Possession of a concentrate is its own felony.
Manufacturing it is another felony.
The production of the cannabis in order to manufacture it is three felonies.
It's not something I'd want to get caught doing.
That's for sure.
It's very important to Catherine, understandably, that Ben not get high, and that means, you know, no THC whatsoever.
It's actually kind of a complicated trick to do.
Nate will attempt to create a concentrate that will be high in CBD's and low in THC.
And the first step is to put it into ethanol.
Ethanol takes the oils on the surface of the leaf material and dissolves them into the water.
That then allows me to chemically isolate the CBD's from the THC Just by spraying it in there.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
I have very mixed emotions about this.
On the one hand, I feel like I'm playing a small role in an important historical event, when we first figured out how to treat epilepsy.
It's also really stressful because it's super illegal.
And it's for children, which makes it that much more illegal.
So, now, as you can see, the CBD's have floated to the surface.
They're that nice amber-yellow color that you see when you look at a high-CBD plant under a microscope.
The trichomes have that kind of color.
So, you know we're looking at the right thing.
And, yeah, that's just about ready to go.
It doesn't look like much, but this little vial could be the difference between 8 to 12 seizures a week versus almost none.
All in this tiny, little vial of CBD's.
At this point in the season in this investigation, it kind of becomes a dangerous game now, 'cause it's kind of a cat-and-mouse game.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson hits the streets to find the car he spotted from aerial surveillance the day before.
Yeah, we're kind of in the thick of this investigation right now.
Just finished up doing some aerial recon on the grow we found.
We were able to gain some intelligence and some information.
Now we're gonna go get these guys.
Needle in a haystack.
That's all it is.
Detective Don Adams is joining Thomson in the search.
The only way you're gonna get 'em is if you keep doing it and if you're persistent and if you don't give up.
If I keep looking at these vehicles, I always got that chance that I'm gonna catch that guy who's ruining people's lives to put a dollar in their pocket.
At least you feel like you're doing something.
Instead of waiting for things to happen, try to make things happen.
Sometimes you just get lucky.
I've never been in a situation like this, where it was so important to get a specific medicine to a specific patient, but it doesn't get more serious than this.
This is also going to be the first time I ever brought medicine to be used by a small child.
If he is discovered and pulled over, Nate faces a possible sentencing of five years for carrying concentrated cannabis.
And that, frankly, scares the hell out of me.
If they find out he's providing for a child, the sentence could be far worse.
It seems like we're going in circles, but Yeah, sometimes you don't have much choice.
Everybody has strongly cautioned me not to do this, and it's been described to me as a suicide mission.
I could be driving around, doing this, and they could be 400 Miles away from here.
Or four Miles, you know? A lot of people, you know, don't care that Ben could die if he doesn't get this medicine.
There's definitely a potential of going to jail for doing this.
The bad guys are covering their tracks, and we're covering our tracks, and in the end, we're gonna take the bad guys down.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
I'm starting to think to myself, "is this the last fall I'm gonna enjoy as a free man? Is there, is there somebody on their way here?" Nate is delivering medical marijuana to a young child.
If caught, he could be facing multiple charges.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
Just think positive.
Suspect vehicle on I-5 apprehended.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson receives a call from dispatch Suspect is currently in custody.
And quickly changes course to interrogate the apprehended suspect.
Is everything photographed already? Not individually, but the whole allotment's been photographed.
I get a call from patrol that they made a traffic stop on a u-haul truck.
The officer ended up gaining consent to search and basically found the whole thing was packed full of growing equipment.
How much did they say they had? He didn't know.
Probably had three or four pounds, I'm guessing, of marijuana bud, and the back of the u-haul was basically full of growing equipment.
Plus, he had about $6,000 in cash.
I just briefly looked in your bag, and there's a whole bunch of cash there.
--- --- There are so many vehicles and so few cops.
Probably 99% of all the drugs that are being transported on the ground get through.
So, we're gonna take the cash.
We're gonna take the weed.
We're gonna take the grow equipment and cite for manufacturing and for possession of marijuana.
--- If you don't want to answer any more questions, that's fine.
--- While managing to evade the cops, Nate arrives at Catherine Jacobson's home.
- How you doing? - Good.
He carries with him a vial of CBD-rich concentrated oil that could be a breakthrough in managing her son, Ben's, epilepsy.
This is what you described you wanted.
It's 25-to-1, CBD-to-THC.
Wow, I've never seen or heard of anyone being able to make such a concentrated tincture.
Catherine has tried cannabidiol in a lower concentration with some success.
She hopes that this new medicine will reduce Ben's seizures or eliminate them altogether.
I don't know yet if this medicine will stop Ben's seizures, but if this medication helps control Ben's seizures, it's gonna dramatically change his life and our life.
It's gonna give him a chance to interact with me and his sister and his dad.
It's gonna calm us as parents down because we won't be worrying about whether our son is gonna survive the night or not.
He'll do things a normal three-year-old will do.
Yeah.
I've got my fingers crossed.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do.
And I'm gonna get to work, making more of that for you.
All right.
- Thank you so much.
- My pleasure.
- It was good to see you.
- Good to see you, too.
I'll, I'll talk to you soon.
Okay.
- Drive safely.
- I'll do it.
I won't lie.
It does feel good to be in a position to help out somebody in need like this.
Though the concentrate may save Ben's life, Nate could face child-endangerment laws.
There's something particularly scandalous about providing medicine to children.
You know, there's years in prison associated with that.
I would be looking at less time if I just pursued a career as a bank robber at this point because the punishments are awful.
These people, they don't give a [Bleep.]
about anybody but themselves.
The turf war with their neighbors has Boutin and his wife, Tawni, taking stock.
We've had people that are bad neighbors, that have been, like, hurting you, for three months.
I've had it with their pettiness.
I've had it with their making things up and lying.
I've had it with their jealousy.
With everything that's going on this summer, having neighbor problems and property-line issues and the guns getting taken away, just kind of makes me wonder if we're even gonna get to bring our crop in this year, you know? Sometimes I feel like we took a wrong turn somewhere and God's not on our side anymore, you know? I'm not ashamed of who I am and what I do.
- You shouldn't be.
- But I feel I don't know that "shame" is the right word.
I just feel Like there's something wrong with us, you know? We're the bad people, you know, because of what we do.
This is not generally who I am, and so I'm sorry if I'm not handling this right, but I think it's time to handle it like the guy who's sick of his neighborhood being assaulted by bullies, and that's the way I'm gonna go about it.
You're a Boutin.
- That's a fact, Jack.
- Right? I love you.
I love you, too.
It feels like something's against us, you know? Nothing ever works out the way we have planned, you know? It's like we want to do good, and it always seems like evil's right around the corner.
Just south of the Emerald Triangle, Matt Shotwell and his muscle, Skweaz, head north It's a long drive, man.
We've been driving for a while.
To try to rebuild Shotwell's empire.
Everything is at stake with this because we got to get our [Bleep.]
get back here, and get it to the people before the prices start dropping with crop-tober coming.
And a lot of people are waiting for this harvest to get down here, and if I don't get back, I'm Done.
Shotwell ties his fate to Mike Boutin, while those closest to him back home are expressing their doubts.
I'm gonna prove everybody in Vallejo wrong, including my girlfriend, including my lawyer, and everybody else that said, "quit the game, walk away.
" Well, guess what? I'm not.
I'll either be sitting behind a jail and say, "you were right," or be sitting in another state somewhere with a stack of money, saying, "I [Bleep.]
told you so.
" Keep an eye on the engine temperature, all right? Matt, everything is a-ok right now.
Hey, man.
Boutin's patient Nicholas pays a visit to pick up more weed.
Boutin typically delivers to Nicholas, who happens to be a former New York City cop.
What's up? What up, Mikey? Not a lot of people would allow an ex-law-enforcement officer into their collective, but, you know, I'm comfortable with it because I come from a cop family.
I just got a lot of stuff going on right now.
It's hard to feel comfortable when you feel like, you know, put upon by circumstances that, you know, start adding up.
With the turf war raging, Boutin couldn't leave the farm to deliver his weed to Nicholas.
So, I've got this, like, you know, crazy neighbor.
There was, like, a [Bleep.]
storm going on, on this property.
Tawni was, like, crazy, crazy mad.
And this guy has firearms on top of it? Yeah.
And I got rid of mine.
So, yeah, I feel a little vulnerable about that.
We'll just have to wait and see.
Boutin could go to jail, and Nicholas would have to find other ways to treat his chronic pain.
Me and Mike are talking about the stress that the neighbor, cops, law, state, city Some of this stuff is out of his control right now, and he's just got to let the tides turn.
I think that, you know, I'm trying to make sure that you cover your bases is a good thing in case something happens to me, because I know that you're gonna keep needing, like, good medicine if something does happen to us.
Nick needs his cannabis treatment no matter what.
If something happens to me, I need somebody that I can trust to make sure that Nick got taken care of, right? If I get thrown in jail, that's the things I'll think about, the people that I helped.
From the picture view, this place is paradise, but they seem to have the same nonsense problems that you have from living on top of each other like in New York.
Kind of crazy to me.
It's good seeing you, man.
I'm really glad you had a chance to make it up here.
They are the outlaws of the Emerald Triangle.
[Bleep.]
Nate and fellow grower B.
E.
Smith are gathered in solemn appreciation for having stayed out of jail.
Tonight, it's the end of a, you know, very long season.
This season in particular has been really stressful.
His own crop was ripped up at the start of the season, and he's been dodging cops all summer long, striving to craft the concentrate in hopes of relieving a young boy's seizures.
It's really positive, and it's kind of put a bounce in my step and given me a real sense of purpose.
The harvest party is kind of the happy, little exclamation point at the end of a lot of hard work.
Every farming culture celebrates a bountiful harvest, but perhaps no one does it quite like the Emerald Triangle.
In the Emerald Triangle, there's not, like, nightclubs.
There's not a lot of ways to celebrate other than, like, enjoying the natural beauty.
There's a lot of emotion involved with a harvest party.
It's not just "hooray, we have an enormous pile of weed!" It's, you know, it's "okay, we get to take a deep breath.
We pulled it off.
" For Nate and B.
E.
, the nightmare is nearly over.
So, while I'm paranoid, I'm gonna go check on everything down below.
But for grower Mike Boutin, the nightmare continues.
Come on, bud.
After a summer of misfortune, Boutin inspects his garden for signs of more trouble.
Harvesttime means, for me, it's danger.
It's pressure.
It's stress.
It's a big knot in your stomach.
In a matter of days, Boutin had a land dispute with his neighbors, his bank accounts were shut down, and his guns were seized.
And without firearms, he is more exposed than ever.
I'm starting to think to myself, "where are these dots heading? "Is this the last fall I'm gonna enjoy as a free man? Is there, is there somebody on their way here?" For law enforcement, it's another sleepless night in a relentless pursuit.
Where do you want me to lead him to? Just the trailhead.
You guys just have to hang up the l.
Z.
Once you get the all-clear, then just come up, just come up the main road.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson continues his search for any and all growers who defy the law.
If it becomes legal, then we'll find something else to do.
But right now, it is illegal to sell it, so we're gonna come after you.
I mean, that's what we do.
It's marijuana.
It's not more important than people.
But, now, your life is another story.
Like all thieves, the easier the target, the more likely the theft.
But for that one that's going to go through you to get the marijuana, it's not about marijuana.
It's about my life.
Synch & corrections by Vegemite.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
One farmer out to save a young child with epilepsy What a cute kid.
had his entire crop cut down Oh [Bleep.]
and turned to an old friend for help.
Let's do it.
A former dispensary owner desperate to get back in the game I don't support this.
Went against his girlfriend's wishes and headed north to the Emerald Triangle.
Yeah, baby, it's "go" time.
And the turf war between Mike Boutin and his neighbor You lost again?! --- Pushed his wife, Tawni, to the edge.
It's just bull [Bleep.]
Deep in the heart of the northern California mountains, marijuana growing season is under way.
You're growing in your front yard? Oh, yeah.
This is the Emerald Triangle, 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.
I mean, look at the size of that.
It's a decades-old battle between cops It is a problem of epidemic proportions.
- Dealers - It's just a business that can't fail.
Narrator: And growers.
There's nothing more American than a man producing a product that people want.
They stand to make millions or be locked up for years.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
We got somebody running.
This is Weed Country.
Yeah, I'm breaking the law on TV.
So what? At Grace farms, a professional surveying team has arrived.
Boutin's neighbors called the police to inform them that Boutin trespassed on their property with his garden, and they intend to prove it.
I don't have a knife.
He doesn't have a knife.
You're on their side, obviously.
And she is hiring an official surveyor - with official equipment to come here.
- Tawni, who are you raising your voice to? The man that is on their side and is gonna come here and side with them from the sounds of it.
Hello? Who is this? On the other end of the phone is a sheriff's deputy.
The department is taking seriously the neighbors' claim that half of Boutin's plants illegally grow on their land, a claim which is backed up by the property line marked by the surveyors.
--- I get that.
That's why I stopped it.
Go away now! He didn't start getting yelled at.
Stop talking, Tawni! You've already done too [Bleep.]
much talking! For Tawni, the dispute became personal when the neighbors targeted the farm's deer by putting up a sign welcoming hunters.
- It's just [Bleep.]
but, we didn't do - I know, anything to those [Bleep.]
people for them to act the way they are.
--- But I think you have to start thinking about this a little different.
It's a civil matter.
--- Yeah, okay.
Unwanted attention to their crop could lead to Mike and Tawni's arrest.
I've had it.
Tawni's scared because we face the proposition of being arrested and going to state penitentiary.
This is [Bleep.]
Think you did me any favors by yelling at the [Bleep.]
cop? The bottom line still remains that when you have neighbor problems, when they pick up the phone and call officials, officials are obligated to come out and do something about it.
You know what? Maybe I get to go to jail today because you can't keep your [Bleep.]
mouth shut.
Maybe I should be the one going to jail.
Maybe you should stay the [Bleep.]
in this house when they get here.
He already told me on the phone, Mike, that we are illegally growing weed on their property - That's not true.
- and he is gonna take care of it.
He's gonna take care of it! You get what you're doing here? Get a grip on yourself! God! I can't [Bleep.]
believe this! Is it a vehicle? I can't tell.
Go back.
Just click on it and it'll pull it up.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson and officer Andrea Carlson evaluate surveillance photos of vehicles that were just posted.
Got some photos from cameras they had set up near a trailhead close to the big outdoor marijuana grow.
We have to check on them, see where it leads us.
They can use the photos to track down suspect vehicles photographed near illegal grows.
Typical.
There's one leaf in the way.
A tree is just right in the way.
I know.
You can cut that right there off and they'd have been just perfect.
--- Pisses me off.
But then Thomson gets a possible break.
Huh.
Look at that.
--- It does look like a white guy.
--- --- With a visual on a suspect, lieutenant Thomson has another piece of the puzzle and is one step closer to making an arrest.
We're not looking for one part of it.
I want bodies.
I want bodies and I want plants.
I'm not getting no power on this car at all.
Yeah, you got to downshift, man.
Don't be afraid to downshift.
Former dispensary owner Matt Shotwell and fellow drug runner Skweaz are headed to Mike Boutin's unannounced.
I have a feeling when I get to the Emerald Triangle, a lot of my problems are gonna be solved.
It's where all the gold is.
It's up there.
It's the green gold, and I'm going to get it.
Despite facing eight years in prison, Shotwell is planning to bring a large amount of pot back to Vallejo to sell.
Niño, what up?! --- I'm going up to Trinity County! --- What do you think I'm going up there for? Pick up some tree.
--- All right.
What's up, brother? Oh, man, it's good to see you, dude.
I run into one of my old buddies, El niño.
His name is Elizar, and he's a Filipino rastafarian, just a good-hearted guy, man, and he was my bodyguard at Greenwell when I first opened up.
When you're coming down, you know, from where you're at, - Yeah.
- 'cause you're bringing something back? - Yeah.
- Okay.
They'll be looking for a 20, mid-20's white boy with a nice car.
That's the profile they look for.
Perfect, then.
If I see a cop White boy, mid-20's to, you know, to 30's coming down.
My Porsche looks like it's going 100 Miles an hour just sitting there.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Some stupid-ass cop sees a shiny car with some white dude in it.
Pull me over right now, please, officer, while my homies roll down the 101 with 5 pounds in the trunk.
Suck on that.
If there should be any trouble, splash a little bit of hard liquor right here and have a budweiser can.
If a cop shows signs that he's gonna, you know, pull one of you over, you have to sacrifice yourself.
What you do is just kind of start swerving and throw your beer can out the window.
You'll get pulled over.
You'll get arrested.
You'll get checked.
You're gonna pass.
So you don't drink.
You just get the beer on your shirt so he thinks that.
- He's the bait.
- Right.
Pull me over.
I'm gonna tie your whole [Bleep.]
fleet up.
All your little cops, I'm gonna tie up on the side of the road for an hour with a sobriety roadside test while I blow zero.
- All right, man, cool.
- Bless.
One love.
- One love, man.
- I'll be back.
I'll be back with the tree.
This ain't your property and it ain't gonna be.
That's where you're wrong [Bleep.]
With the police on the way, Mike Boutin has gone down to the disputed property line to defend his crop.
[Bleep.]
You.
Oh, listen to you.
You can always tell when people have come to the end of their intellect when all they have left to say is "[Bleep.]
you [bleep.]
You.
" Y'all ought to get on your own [Bleep.]
property.
The insults and bad blood lead Tawni to make a rash decision.
It's way harder on Tawni than it is on me.
She can be loving, but she can be in a rage.
Driving down to the middle of the fight, Tawni heads right into the center of the neighbors' angry wrath.
Tawni, leave the wildlife alone.
--- You're a [Bleep.]
Tawni, I need you to go do what you're supposed to do.
Hey, someone grab that dog.
Grab that [Bleep.]
dog.
--- In the Emerald Triangle Tawni, come here! when it comes to neighbors Tawni! It can go from good --- to bad --- To violent.
--- The act of harvesting a plant is kind of declaring victory.
But a helicopter could land that day and throw you in a cage.
--- Tawni, leave the wildlife alone.
--- --- An altercation with the neighbors is escalating out of control.
Hey, someone grab that dog.
Grab that [Bleep.]
dog.
--- And with the police on the way Tawni, come here! It's only getting worse.
Tawni! Now! --- --- --- --- You don't own any land [Bleep.]
wad.
--- --- You need to stop disrespecting me.
Now, get! Get! Now! Now! Now.
- You fat, sloppy, - Now! Go! --- Mike Boutin must calm down the situation before it gets completely out of hand.
This is our property.
And I'm sure you'll find out in your life that you got to pay a lot of attention to girls, but these are my girls.
People can laugh at me all they want to about talking to your plants, but, hey, they can listen.
Growers B.
E.
Smith and his grandson Aaron are joined by Nate Morris in B.
E.
's garden.
They're inspecting their crop in order to determine if it's ready to harvest.
Harvest too soon and the plants won't reach their full potency.
Wait too long and risk getting ripped off.
I've had my gardens cut down.
Or worse, getting raided by cops and thrown in jail.
I'm not 100% sure that I won't get busted.
How's it been out here? We haven't had any action, because this little valley here, we don't create a problem in the county.
If a cop had to come in here, it's an all-day excursion.
Absolutely.
B.
E.
bases his decision on years of experience and intuition These girls, they know us.
You can just stand next to them and communicate with them, more or less, because you're at peace with them and they're at peace with you.
While Nate uses refined science.
When you're looking at the trichomes under a scope, they're like a yellowish color.
Trichomes on a pot plant are tiny hairs where a sticky residue forms to protect the plant from insects and disease.
When a plant is ready to harvest, they will resemble small yellow or Amber crystals.
Look at the crystals on this, Nate.
Oh, wow.
You almost need sunglasses.
I've looked at plants and noticed that they were yellow, and I thought that that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
- Right.
- But that yellow is CBD's.
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, CBD's counter the effects of THC and are alleged to have medicinal properties.
Nate has tested B.
E.
'S plants, and they do have the right amount of CBD's for him to make a medicinal oral extract for Ben Jacobson - Hi.
Catherine? - Yes.
Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you.
One that won't get the boy high but may help him with his severe epilepsy.
Ben had multiple seizures every day since he was 14 weeks old.
Children die of this all the time.
Cannabidiol has this potential to be an effective antiseizure medication.
- You can see the Amber.
- Yeah, inside.
Okay.
There's literally 200,000 children just like Ben in America.
When that diagnosis hits, it shouldn't be a death sentence.
I mean, you can solve this problem with a flower, and they're proving it.
Almost need a ladder to get up on these plants.
Well, we will use a ladder probably.
You can put the bud in here and take your basket with you.
I'll meet you on the other side.
The plump buds reveal a bounty of high-grade medical marijuana, allowing for an early harvest.
The act of harvesting a plant is kind of declaring victory.
So many things can go wrong when you're growing that you don't know that you pulled it off until you harvest.
In the back of your head, you know tweakers could come and shoot you and take your garden.
Spider mites and powdery mildew can just destroy it while you watch.
You know, a helicopter could land that day and cut it all down and throw you in a cage.
Look how nice this is.
It's almost the size of my arm.
Yeah.
I hear a chopper.
Nate Morris has joined B.
E.
Smith at his farm for harvest.
It's a time when growers are most vulnerable to marijuana thieves And to the law.
I hear a chopper.
While investigating the suspect vehicle Are you ready? --- Lieutenant Matt Thomson spots a large grow.
--- --- [Bleep.]
You.
That's just how simple it is.
You mother [Bleep.]
taught me how to kill, and you [Bleep.]
punish me for growing a plant? 1963 to 1969, I fought in the military in Vietnam.
They sent me as a well-trained soldier to Vietnam to kill human beings.
I did a damn good job.
I was decorated.
I was promoted very quickly.
I had a big burden placed upon me when I was 20 years old.
Sorry.
I can't even do it.
Let's go to a different subject.
B.
E.
came home from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder and fled to the mountains to escape the horrible memories.
When I got back from Vietnam, I smoked my first joint, and I knew I found my drug.
And I'm talking using it as medicine for my disability.
Home from one conflict, B.
E.
found himself on the losing side of another.
Just blows my mind.
They taught me how to kill a human being, and then when I came home, I grew a plant and they throw me in [Bleep.]
prison.
I spent over half my life fighting in wars.
I'm gonna still be in a war when it comes to cannabis forever.
I guess it's time to go.
Nate must leave B.
E.
's farm without being identified if he expects to get medicine to Catherine's son, Ben.
Ben doesn't have the option of waiting for me to plant another farm next year.
Ben needs medicine right now, and I promised his mother I would find it for him.
Just got to get out of here.
This place gives me the creeps right now.
You know, this is a really hot war, and cops use some pretty extraordinary techniques to track people like me down and figure out what we're up to.
Taking with him the weed that has already been harvested, Nate hopes to stay one step ahead of the law.
- Hey, Omar.
- How you doing? Deputy Omar Brown arrives to investigate Mike Boutin's volatile dispute with his neighbor.
--- No, and you know what? I'm glad to see you, actually, because you know what? I've known you for a long time and I respect you, and so we just need to have a conversation is all.
What I want to do is I want to make sure nobody is [Bleep.]
gonna hurt anybody.
Nobody's gonna do that, dude.
Did you get my e-mail that said we don't even have a gun on this farm? - And they're not our enemies.
- Yeah, and we are not, either.
We got a call today that there was a neighbor dispute, but it also involved a marijuana grow, so they asked the narcotics office to come down and respond to that call.
What I'm concerned about now is, how do I keep you from at each other's throats from here on out? - Well, Omar, yes, yes.
- That's what I'm concerned about.
I've known Mike off and on for about, at least six years.
When I first encountered him, we came in and we kicked his door, did a search warrant.
Didn't take any of that, that time.
I want you to calm down from what I heard earlier.
Just trying to de-escalate the whole thing.
If I can tell that this is where this property line is, those plants aren't on your property, whether they were criminally put there or not with the intent to grow on someone else's property.
If the surveyor did his job, - Which I don't think he did.
No! - You don't think he did a good job? Then the only thing you can do there is hire a different surveyor to do a better job.
The issue we're dealing with here, - But now you're here because, - The issue we're dealing with here is two neighbors that almost got violent with each other.
I don't even believe that.
No, that's the issue we're dealing with.
Omar, I swear to you, man, I don't want to be thought of as the thug or the typical marijuana guy or this or that or the other thing.
I got rid of those firearms.
I want somebody to tell that guy that he can't act like a thug, because as far as I'm concerned, here's the thing.
You see, I can't.
Nobody can go tell your neighbor to act reasonable.
You know, and you can wonder why people are [Bleep.]
all you want to, but the fact is people can be [Bleep.]
We're either legal, as I contend, or we're not, and if I'm gonna to jail for it anyway, let's get it over with.
The amount of marijuana you're growing is not covered by your medical protection.
Sure it is.
- How many total plants you got? - I would say, I would call it 60.
-120? - What the hell you just say? -120 total.
Is that how many I have? I don't know.
Boutin's crop is on the verge of police investigation.
You know, it might be over that pseudo federal limit, - but the fact is they're very, very small.
- There is no pseudo federal limit.
Marijuana is illegal on the federal level, and I'm a cop, and so it's my job to enforce that illegality aspect.
This year, I'm doing what I always do.
I'm, I'm saving my farm.
You're in complete violation of the ordinance.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
Marijuana is illegal, all right, on the federal level, and I'm a cop, and so it's my job to enforce that illegality aspect.
This year, I'm doing what I always do.
I'm, I'm saving my farm.
You're in complete violation of the ordinance.
However, the only way the ordinance applies is because it is a nuisance ordinance.
Right.
The only way the ordinance applies is if it's in response to a complaint.
Right.
Nobody's complained.
And if it's not a complaint, it's not a nuisance.
County law requires a formal complaint about marijuana to trigger an investigation.
In my experience, as these frickin' complaints have come, most of them are motivated by this kind of thing, bad neighbors.
Today's complaint was about a property dispute.
If the neighbors call about Boutin's weed and he's over the legal limit, he will be busted.
Omar is a great guy.
No doubt about it.
But let's not forget he's already kicked down my door once.
He could and would do it again.
I'm going to a little, nondescript building that I'm gonna use as a temporary laboratory.
Nate fled B.
E.
's farm when the cops flew over in a helicopter.
He worries that he's a marked man.
I've taken some extra precautions just 'cause the risks are a little bit bigger for this.
I'm watching over my shoulder, making sure no one sees where I'm at.
Because Nate is going to create an illegal medicine he plans on giving to a child, his punishment could be severe.
Possession of a concentrate is its own felony.
Manufacturing it is another felony.
The production of the cannabis in order to manufacture it is three felonies.
It's not something I'd want to get caught doing.
That's for sure.
It's very important to Catherine, understandably, that Ben not get high, and that means, you know, no THC whatsoever.
It's actually kind of a complicated trick to do.
Nate will attempt to create a concentrate that will be high in CBD's and low in THC.
And the first step is to put it into ethanol.
Ethanol takes the oils on the surface of the leaf material and dissolves them into the water.
That then allows me to chemically isolate the CBD's from the THC Just by spraying it in there.
Arguably, I just committed a felony.
I have very mixed emotions about this.
On the one hand, I feel like I'm playing a small role in an important historical event, when we first figured out how to treat epilepsy.
It's also really stressful because it's super illegal.
And it's for children, which makes it that much more illegal.
So, now, as you can see, the CBD's have floated to the surface.
They're that nice amber-yellow color that you see when you look at a high-CBD plant under a microscope.
The trichomes have that kind of color.
So, you know we're looking at the right thing.
And, yeah, that's just about ready to go.
It doesn't look like much, but this little vial could be the difference between 8 to 12 seizures a week versus almost none.
All in this tiny, little vial of CBD's.
At this point in the season in this investigation, it kind of becomes a dangerous game now, 'cause it's kind of a cat-and-mouse game.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson hits the streets to find the car he spotted from aerial surveillance the day before.
Yeah, we're kind of in the thick of this investigation right now.
Just finished up doing some aerial recon on the grow we found.
We were able to gain some intelligence and some information.
Now we're gonna go get these guys.
Needle in a haystack.
That's all it is.
Detective Don Adams is joining Thomson in the search.
The only way you're gonna get 'em is if you keep doing it and if you're persistent and if you don't give up.
If I keep looking at these vehicles, I always got that chance that I'm gonna catch that guy who's ruining people's lives to put a dollar in their pocket.
At least you feel like you're doing something.
Instead of waiting for things to happen, try to make things happen.
Sometimes you just get lucky.
I've never been in a situation like this, where it was so important to get a specific medicine to a specific patient, but it doesn't get more serious than this.
This is also going to be the first time I ever brought medicine to be used by a small child.
If he is discovered and pulled over, Nate faces a possible sentencing of five years for carrying concentrated cannabis.
And that, frankly, scares the hell out of me.
If they find out he's providing for a child, the sentence could be far worse.
It seems like we're going in circles, but Yeah, sometimes you don't have much choice.
Everybody has strongly cautioned me not to do this, and it's been described to me as a suicide mission.
I could be driving around, doing this, and they could be 400 Miles away from here.
Or four Miles, you know? A lot of people, you know, don't care that Ben could die if he doesn't get this medicine.
There's definitely a potential of going to jail for doing this.
The bad guys are covering their tracks, and we're covering our tracks, and in the end, we're gonna take the bad guys down.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
I'm starting to think to myself, "is this the last fall I'm gonna enjoy as a free man? Is there, is there somebody on their way here?" Nate is delivering medical marijuana to a young child.
If caught, he could be facing multiple charges.
Oh, God.
Yeah, those are cops.
Just think positive.
Suspect vehicle on I-5 apprehended.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson receives a call from dispatch Suspect is currently in custody.
And quickly changes course to interrogate the apprehended suspect.
Is everything photographed already? Not individually, but the whole allotment's been photographed.
I get a call from patrol that they made a traffic stop on a u-haul truck.
The officer ended up gaining consent to search and basically found the whole thing was packed full of growing equipment.
How much did they say they had? He didn't know.
Probably had three or four pounds, I'm guessing, of marijuana bud, and the back of the u-haul was basically full of growing equipment.
Plus, he had about $6,000 in cash.
I just briefly looked in your bag, and there's a whole bunch of cash there.
--- --- There are so many vehicles and so few cops.
Probably 99% of all the drugs that are being transported on the ground get through.
So, we're gonna take the cash.
We're gonna take the weed.
We're gonna take the grow equipment and cite for manufacturing and for possession of marijuana.
--- If you don't want to answer any more questions, that's fine.
--- While managing to evade the cops, Nate arrives at Catherine Jacobson's home.
- How you doing? - Good.
He carries with him a vial of CBD-rich concentrated oil that could be a breakthrough in managing her son, Ben's, epilepsy.
This is what you described you wanted.
It's 25-to-1, CBD-to-THC.
Wow, I've never seen or heard of anyone being able to make such a concentrated tincture.
Catherine has tried cannabidiol in a lower concentration with some success.
She hopes that this new medicine will reduce Ben's seizures or eliminate them altogether.
I don't know yet if this medicine will stop Ben's seizures, but if this medication helps control Ben's seizures, it's gonna dramatically change his life and our life.
It's gonna give him a chance to interact with me and his sister and his dad.
It's gonna calm us as parents down because we won't be worrying about whether our son is gonna survive the night or not.
He'll do things a normal three-year-old will do.
Yeah.
I've got my fingers crossed.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do.
And I'm gonna get to work, making more of that for you.
All right.
- Thank you so much.
- My pleasure.
- It was good to see you.
- Good to see you, too.
I'll, I'll talk to you soon.
Okay.
- Drive safely.
- I'll do it.
I won't lie.
It does feel good to be in a position to help out somebody in need like this.
Though the concentrate may save Ben's life, Nate could face child-endangerment laws.
There's something particularly scandalous about providing medicine to children.
You know, there's years in prison associated with that.
I would be looking at less time if I just pursued a career as a bank robber at this point because the punishments are awful.
These people, they don't give a [Bleep.]
about anybody but themselves.
The turf war with their neighbors has Boutin and his wife, Tawni, taking stock.
We've had people that are bad neighbors, that have been, like, hurting you, for three months.
I've had it with their pettiness.
I've had it with their making things up and lying.
I've had it with their jealousy.
With everything that's going on this summer, having neighbor problems and property-line issues and the guns getting taken away, just kind of makes me wonder if we're even gonna get to bring our crop in this year, you know? Sometimes I feel like we took a wrong turn somewhere and God's not on our side anymore, you know? I'm not ashamed of who I am and what I do.
- You shouldn't be.
- But I feel I don't know that "shame" is the right word.
I just feel Like there's something wrong with us, you know? We're the bad people, you know, because of what we do.
This is not generally who I am, and so I'm sorry if I'm not handling this right, but I think it's time to handle it like the guy who's sick of his neighborhood being assaulted by bullies, and that's the way I'm gonna go about it.
You're a Boutin.
- That's a fact, Jack.
- Right? I love you.
I love you, too.
It feels like something's against us, you know? Nothing ever works out the way we have planned, you know? It's like we want to do good, and it always seems like evil's right around the corner.
Just south of the Emerald Triangle, Matt Shotwell and his muscle, Skweaz, head north It's a long drive, man.
We've been driving for a while.
To try to rebuild Shotwell's empire.
Everything is at stake with this because we got to get our [Bleep.]
get back here, and get it to the people before the prices start dropping with crop-tober coming.
And a lot of people are waiting for this harvest to get down here, and if I don't get back, I'm Done.
Shotwell ties his fate to Mike Boutin, while those closest to him back home are expressing their doubts.
I'm gonna prove everybody in Vallejo wrong, including my girlfriend, including my lawyer, and everybody else that said, "quit the game, walk away.
" Well, guess what? I'm not.
I'll either be sitting behind a jail and say, "you were right," or be sitting in another state somewhere with a stack of money, saying, "I [Bleep.]
told you so.
" Keep an eye on the engine temperature, all right? Matt, everything is a-ok right now.
Hey, man.
Boutin's patient Nicholas pays a visit to pick up more weed.
Boutin typically delivers to Nicholas, who happens to be a former New York City cop.
What's up? What up, Mikey? Not a lot of people would allow an ex-law-enforcement officer into their collective, but, you know, I'm comfortable with it because I come from a cop family.
I just got a lot of stuff going on right now.
It's hard to feel comfortable when you feel like, you know, put upon by circumstances that, you know, start adding up.
With the turf war raging, Boutin couldn't leave the farm to deliver his weed to Nicholas.
So, I've got this, like, you know, crazy neighbor.
There was, like, a [Bleep.]
storm going on, on this property.
Tawni was, like, crazy, crazy mad.
And this guy has firearms on top of it? Yeah.
And I got rid of mine.
So, yeah, I feel a little vulnerable about that.
We'll just have to wait and see.
Boutin could go to jail, and Nicholas would have to find other ways to treat his chronic pain.
Me and Mike are talking about the stress that the neighbor, cops, law, state, city Some of this stuff is out of his control right now, and he's just got to let the tides turn.
I think that, you know, I'm trying to make sure that you cover your bases is a good thing in case something happens to me, because I know that you're gonna keep needing, like, good medicine if something does happen to us.
Nick needs his cannabis treatment no matter what.
If something happens to me, I need somebody that I can trust to make sure that Nick got taken care of, right? If I get thrown in jail, that's the things I'll think about, the people that I helped.
From the picture view, this place is paradise, but they seem to have the same nonsense problems that you have from living on top of each other like in New York.
Kind of crazy to me.
It's good seeing you, man.
I'm really glad you had a chance to make it up here.
They are the outlaws of the Emerald Triangle.
[Bleep.]
Nate and fellow grower B.
E.
Smith are gathered in solemn appreciation for having stayed out of jail.
Tonight, it's the end of a, you know, very long season.
This season in particular has been really stressful.
His own crop was ripped up at the start of the season, and he's been dodging cops all summer long, striving to craft the concentrate in hopes of relieving a young boy's seizures.
It's really positive, and it's kind of put a bounce in my step and given me a real sense of purpose.
The harvest party is kind of the happy, little exclamation point at the end of a lot of hard work.
Every farming culture celebrates a bountiful harvest, but perhaps no one does it quite like the Emerald Triangle.
In the Emerald Triangle, there's not, like, nightclubs.
There's not a lot of ways to celebrate other than, like, enjoying the natural beauty.
There's a lot of emotion involved with a harvest party.
It's not just "hooray, we have an enormous pile of weed!" It's, you know, it's "okay, we get to take a deep breath.
We pulled it off.
" For Nate and B.
E.
, the nightmare is nearly over.
So, while I'm paranoid, I'm gonna go check on everything down below.
But for grower Mike Boutin, the nightmare continues.
Come on, bud.
After a summer of misfortune, Boutin inspects his garden for signs of more trouble.
Harvesttime means, for me, it's danger.
It's pressure.
It's stress.
It's a big knot in your stomach.
In a matter of days, Boutin had a land dispute with his neighbors, his bank accounts were shut down, and his guns were seized.
And without firearms, he is more exposed than ever.
I'm starting to think to myself, "where are these dots heading? "Is this the last fall I'm gonna enjoy as a free man? Is there, is there somebody on their way here?" For law enforcement, it's another sleepless night in a relentless pursuit.
Where do you want me to lead him to? Just the trailhead.
You guys just have to hang up the l.
Z.
Once you get the all-clear, then just come up, just come up the main road.
Lieutenant Matt Thomson continues his search for any and all growers who defy the law.
If it becomes legal, then we'll find something else to do.
But right now, it is illegal to sell it, so we're gonna come after you.
I mean, that's what we do.
It's marijuana.
It's not more important than people.
But, now, your life is another story.
Like all thieves, the easier the target, the more likely the theft.
But for that one that's going to go through you to get the marijuana, it's not about marijuana.
It's about my life.
Synch & corrections by Vegemite.