[VIDEO] High Profits: Cannabis Meets Capitalism

At first blush, Brian Rogers and Caitlin McGuire seem like any other small business owners — polite, hardworking and passionate about what they do. But there’s the potential for things to get a little awkward when the conversation turns from “hi”s to highs.

“There’s always a moment of hesitation of ‘when are they going to ask us what we do?’ and ‘how are they going to receive that when we tell them?'” McGuire, 25, said.

She and Rogers, 34, own the Breckenridge Cannabis Club, a recreational marijuana dispensary in the historic and scenic ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado.

The couple started their business as a medical cannabis dispensary in 2010, but when Colorado became the first state in the nation to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, they saw a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity.

Previously, they were only permitted to sell medical marijuana to the approximate 4,500 permanent residents of Breckenridge; when the new legislation took effect on January 1, 2014, they could then sell to any of the 30,000-plus tourists (21 years or older) who visited the town during peak season.

By the end of the first day of “recreational” sales, they knew their lives had changed forever. The two said they brought in more than $47,000 in sales, roughly 30 times their normal daily sales of medical marijuana. The long lines and enthusiastic patrons also raised the ire of some of the residents who felt the shop detracted from the town’s “family-friendly” atmosphere.

Watch now how the pair’s journey to build a legal marijuana empire is documented in the new CNN Original Series “High Profits,”

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Steven Peters

Owner & Publisher at Natural Revolution

Steven Peters has been a health advocate for more than a decade and proponent for alternative healing by ‘Empowering Natural Living’ through homeopathic approaches. He is also an activist for social justice and environmental causes in the GMO Labeling and Non-GMO grassroots movements across the country, and a staunch advocate for cannabis education and reform.

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