Gallery: Behind the Scenes of Colorado's $700 Million Pot Business
Benjamin Rasmussen01BRasmussen-Pot-016
Various strains of marijuana shot at Denver Relief, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen02BRasmussen-Pot-008
Paige Smith and Mary Bahar count out money and distribute it for payroll at Good Meds Marijuana dispensary in Lakewood, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen03BRasmussen-Pot-006
A woman trimming at Nature's Herb in Garden City, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen04BRasmussen-Pot-001
A stereo hangs above a locked camera box with a monitor that records everything happening in the two greenhouses at the Stanley brothers’ grow operation outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen05BRasmussen-Pot-013
Kristi Kelly, Principal & Founder of Good Meds poses for a portrait at the company’s marijuana dispensary in Lakewood, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen06BRasmussen-Pot-004
Dave Meiler, from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, knocks on a door while canvassing for Amendment 64 in Denver, Colorado. A New York native, Meiler moved to Denver six months prior to campaign.
Benjamin Rasmussen07BRasmussen-Pot-003
'Strawberry diesel' plant at Colorado Harvest Company, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen08BRasmussen-Pot-014
James Downs, 27, poses for a portrait outside of the the Karing Kind marijuana dispensary which he guards in Boulder, CO. Downs, who spent seven years as an army sniper, works for the Iron Protection Group.
Benjamin Rasmussen09BRasmussen-Pot-005
Nick Hice, cultivation facility manager at the Denver Relief marijuana dispensary grow house, hangs freshly harvested marijuana to dry in Denver, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen10BRasmussen-Pot-007
Elliott Klug, the owner of Pink House Blooms, sits in his grow house in Denver, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen11BRasmussen-Pot-009
Sorting and packaging marijuana in the Kindman grow house in Denver, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen12BRasmussen-Pot-010
The Dixie Elixir manufacturing facility in Denver, Colorado. Jaymie Giordano (left), 25, puts bottles into a steam machine that shrink wraps the label to the bottle. Mitch Stowell (center), 44, and Jordan Bacheldor (right), 27, pull the finished product off the line.
Benjamin Rasmussen13BRasmussen-Pot-011
Chris Moder, 23, labels bottles at the Dixie Elixer manufacturing facility in Denver, Colorado.
Benjamin Rasmussen14BRasmussen-Pot-012
William Breathes, the pen name of the marijuana critic writing for the free alternative weekly newspaper Westword, smokes marijuana in his home office in Denver, Colorado.
