Marijuana is on the fast track to becoming legal nationwide.
Over 20 states have enacted laws to legalize it.
And in much of the country, the stigma is ceasing to exist.
But when Showtime premiered the show
the drug was much more controversial and less accepted.
And the woman who apparently inspired Mary Louise Parker’s character
was already distributing pot and pissing off the cartels in L.A.
Dr. Dina, my doctor, she is a doctor of many medicines,
but medical marijuana being the most potent.
You know, serving her patients, making sure that we straight
and always having the best medicine to keep us happy and keep us going.
Dr. Dina, the real Nancy Botwin.
I mean, having one of the first legal dispensaries in Southern California,
and bringing in the first doctor to Southern California
to write recommendations for people that are ill is great.
We became friends and family.
You know, she makes sure everybody is straight,
she basically rolled out the carpet, like a West Coast Queen should do
when you’re in this world of cannabis.
I’m Dr. Dina, and I’m the real Nancy Botwin.
[The Real Nancy Botwin?]
We’re in West Hollywood, about to meet Dr. Dina.
She’s been involved in this dispensary that we’re going to
since the very beginning.
It’s the oldest dispensary in Southern California,
and that was even before the show
I am the first woman in Southern California
to start a medical cannabis doctor’s office and dispensary.
Do you consider yourself the Queen of Weed?
When it comes to Hollywood and L.A., we do it a little bit differently,
so I kind of do consider myself the... the Princess of Pot
or the Queen of Cannabis.
-You have to meet our security guard. -Hi there.
-Smells nice in here. -Thank you.
Little bit of Amsterdam.
Dr. Dina, in terms of weed, is incredibly knowledgeable.
Genuinely has other people’s best interests at heart.
You can come in here and you can pick from indica, sativa, hybrid
of concentrates, of flowers, of edibles...
a little bit of everything.
Why do you think the show is based on you?
Oh, I started writing a script with my friend,
and one of our patients was like,
“Oh, let me read it, I work in the business.”
We gave him the script and he goes, “That’s really good,
I would make a couple of notes.”
And he made a couple of notes and then he never came back.
And then a few months later, the show came out.
And I walked outside the front door,
and there was a huge billboard on Sunset Boulevard
with a woman that looked a little bit like me.
Actually, a patient came in and said, “Nice billboard!”
I said, “What are you talking about?” I walked outside, and I looked up,
and I didn’t even look at it for two seconds,
I thought it was me.
I went-- and it was April Fools’.
And I called Snoop, I’m like,
“How dare you do this to me on April Fools’?”
He goes, “Do what?”
I said, “You put a billboard on Sunset Boulevard
so everyone knows I have weed.”
He goes, “Baby girl. Billboards are $50,000.
And I don’t love you $50,000. That’s crazy.”
She thought I put a billboard up on her.
But, you know, I didn’t do nothing like that.
I thought it was funny because I see some similarities between them, too.
Hollywood is crazy.
And then, a few weeks later, Snoop called me and said,
“I filmed on that show. They are totally biting off you.
They had her come into a studio, they wanted me to call her the MILF Weed.”
He’s like, “That’s some Dr. Dina **** right there.”
And I ignored it.
And then the show came out.
And I started watching it, and I was physically shaking,
the first couple of episodes.
Dina grew up in Calabasas,
a wealthy, sheltered Los Angeles community.
The thought of smoking pot was completely foreign to her.
I was a really good girl,
did not do drugs, did not drink alcohol.
It was never part of my life.
My parents didn’t drink, they didn’t do drugs.
I just didn’t even think it [was] something cool to do.
Until I was in high school and I’ve heard these rumours,
and I was a dare kid.
And I knew, you don’t want to do drugs.
Dina says there’s one person who got her into weed,
Snoop Dogg.
We decided to pay him a visit to hear how exactly it all went down.
Where do you think you would be if it wasn’t for Snoop?
I would still be doing the same exact thing.
I probably wouldn't have cameras filming me.
Maybe I would, who knows?
Snoop is just someone who has been a close friend of mine,
and I wouldn’t even say he’s my number one patient.
-Good to see you. -Good to see you, too, baby.
I brought you some Lord Stanley,
since we won the Stanley Cup.
And your Snoop Lion.
L.A.’s the place.
Thank you very much.
It started when Dina was in high school.
Her friend’s dad, a high profile criminal attorney at the time,
had his client, Snoop, over to the house.
And you came outside and you wanted to go smoke.
You lit it up, and I must have looked on my face like I am going to tell,
“Oh, my God. There’s people doing drugs here.”
And you said, “Come on over here, little girl.
You have nothing to be scared of.”
And you said, “Hit this, and hit this now.”
And I took it from you and I hit it.
And I don't think I really inhaled.
But from that moment, I was like,
“Oh, my God. That’s it, I’m a drug addict.”
And you said... you said, “Now you’re you’re in on it, too.
-So you can’t rat us out.” -How low?
So, the first time I ever got high was with you.
-Oh, wow. You’re welcome. -Yeah. Thanks a lot.
We grow on site and we procure our medicine from other patients.
Some little baby plants.
We clone these off of the mom plants.
This is the Fire OGs, so we keep them in glass.
And here is the lovely grow room.
Yeah, the buds are just starting.
These are Method 7 glasses.
And that will give you the true color spectrum
of what the plant’s supposed to look like.
It’s very pretty.
Yeah, it’s cool.
So, even though you can’t discuss celebrity clients,
are there any that would shock us?
A lot.
There are some shockers.
We have clients that won’t come to the store.
We actually have to go to their house to do home consultations.
I've actually driven to a house
and had Secret Service go through my bag filled with sugar cookies,
just to go see my client.
Do you have any uptight conservatives?
Very uptight conservative political types.
Any who have spoken out against weed?
Yes, but that's all I can say.
Do you ever talk politics with them?
Yes, all the time.
We actually get along great, politically wise,
because I’m a political mutt and I’m not in one box.
I definitely don’t fit in one box.
Back in the day, marijuana was a big problem.
I don’t even remember talking about other drugs.
To me, it was like, “Really stay off weed.
Weed’s going to ruin your life.”
I realized that when I would smoke a joint, I was still in control,
and relaxed, and I would have a good time.
But if I were to drink alcohol,
I felt like I was more likely to do something really stupid.
I thought the medical was a joke.
To be perfectly honest, that was my attitude.
Then, my friend, they gave him four months to live.
Put him on a really crazy, high dose of chemo,
and said, “Keep your fingers crossed.”
He was taking the pills and he was throwing up... every five minutes.
And after two weeks, he just really, like, gave up on life.
And called me, not to say “Hi,”
but, “Hey, do you guys have a gun I can borrow?”
I said, “For what?”
And he goes, “Well, I have $50,000 in my bank account,
and I’ve already spent $10,000 on this chemo.
I’m throwing up every pill.
If I continue to take it, I will be completely broke.
And I will be dead in four months and my wife will be left destitute.”
And I instantly just burst into tears.
And I said, “We have to do something. You can’t just kill yourself.”
Although she didn’t know much about the pot world,
Dina tracked down a joint, with the hope it would help her friend.
He was sitting like this with a pot in front of him, just throwing up.
He sat up and he goes,
“This is amazing.”
And he took another hit.
Then he goes, “I didn’t throw up.”
The next day, he called me and he goes, “I need more of that.”
I said, “I can’t be in charge of bringing you weed every day,
but we’re going to figure something out.”
I noticed that there was one clinic that was advertising online.
I made an appointment, they were in San Francisco.
I called my friend, and I said, “We’re going to San Francisco.”
We finally saw the doctor.
He spent eight minutes with my friend, I timed it.
He said, “Your friend has cancer. What’s his name? Have him sign this.”
And I just said, “You know, there’s a lot of people
in Southern California that have cancer, that have AIDS,
that have all sorts of ailments that need this.
Why are there no doctors down there?”
And he said, “Oh, everyone’s scared because...
we’re afraid we could lose our license for doing this.”
That's when I realized that we had to do something.
We passed a law to make this accessible for these people.
Why is this so hard? Why is it so difficult?
I feel like I'm the only person that's trying to find a doctor
to write a recommendation for someone so he doesn’t go to jail
when people are just smoking freely and breaking the law.
I’m trying to do it right.
Dina saw an opportunity to help medical marijuana reach more people
who had a legal right to it.
She set up shop in the lobby of a hotel where patients could apply
for a cannabis prescription.
From there, I asked the doctor if he would come down to L.A.
and work with us.
He said “Yes.”
So, he started coming down.
I couldn’t afford an office,
so I went to the Radisson Hotel, I used their lobby.
And from there, every single patient that would come in
and get their doctor’s note would say,
“OK, where do I get my weed now?”
There were two dispensaries in L.A. at the time, actually, three,
one in Inglewood, one in L.A. and one in West Hollywood.
I went to them to check them out because I wanted to make sure
that if I sent people there, that they were going to be good places.
Instead, I felt completely scared for my life.
I felt like I was in a crack den.
People when they’re sick,
they should come in and not feel like they’re in a doctor’s office.
They should not feel like they're breaking the law.
They should walk in and feel like,
“Ah, I’m at Fred Segal or some fancy Nordstrom or Bloomingdale’s.”
That’s the experience I want them to have.
At this point, Dina enlisted the help of her childhood friend Andy
to go into business together and open a medical marijuana dispensary.
At the time we first opened, we couldn’t afford
the deposit on the building.
And so we had to bring in someone, an investor.
We were in a rush, we really needed this money fast.
We had met this other guy, who’s Mexican,
and he worked at another collective.
And he offered to give us some money.
He offered $50,000 to be a partner.
We said, “Sure, no problem!”
And then we realized he was Mexican drug cartel.
We noticed something was a little off.
He started bringing in his own employees,
none of which would listen to me.
And then money started going missing, and strange things were going on.
And I confronted them.
And that's when he brought me out into the parking lot.
And he told me that he was going to have a talk with me,
we were going to settle this right now.
And he opened up his glove compartment,
when I was sitting in his car,
and he pulled out a handgun with a silencer.
And he dropped it in my lap, and he goes,
“So, what do you think about that?”
And I took one look and I said,
“You know, you really can’t keep your gun like this.
It has to be coated in linseed oil,
and you have to put it in a plastic bag or it’s going to misfire.”
And he looked at me like, “How do you know that?”
And I said, “I keep all my guns in linseed oil.”
And he went, “Damn, you’re gangster.”
And I went back downstairs,
and I told Andrew what had happened, my best friend.
And he said, “We have to get rid of these people, this is it.
They’re trying to steal our business.”
He physically jumped onto Andrew
and he pulled out his gun in the back room.
And I jumped in between the two of them.
I punched the guy, and I grabbed him by his ear,
which is my signature move, and dragged him out of the store.
So I said, “You need to give me a bag with $50,000,
we’re paying him out.
And if you want to add a little bit more on there,
give me another 10 grand, fine.
Let’s pay them off so they don’t come back.
Were you ever afraid they were going to kill you?
A couple of times.
Well, our store got shot at...
about a week after he threw the gun in my lap.
And we were in the back of the store and we just heard,
“Boom, boom, boom,” like seven shots.
And we were watching the cameras and we saw
someone firing from a G-Wagon.
I didn't know who it was, but I had my suspicions.
I called them up and threatened their lives.
And said they will never **** see their mothers again,
they won’t see their kids again,
“****, you come back!”
And they were like, “We didn’t do it, we didn’t do it.
I swear we had nothing to do with it.”
I’m like, “You are a liar. I know!”
I mean, I went crazy.
You come off as a really cute, 90-pound girl. And in reality...
you’re a gangster.
Thank you, I try.
Kind of throw people off a little bit.
Is it part of your strategy, though?
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
I mean, I couldn’t get away with half of what I get away with
if I wasn’t a girl, I’ll give you that.
Do you think that they were ever afraid
that you were going to go after them?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Which is so weird to me because...
I mean, really, do you think I’m going to do something?
What’s your reputation among the cartel?
Don’t **** with her.
I don’t know why,
but don’t **** with her.
Because I’m a really nice person.
But if you mess with my business or my patients,
you will have hell to pay.
And that’s that
Dina’s business started to grow at an exponential rate.
As she started beating out her competitors and making big money,
Andy started getting into trouble, and the authorities took notice.
Even though medical marijuana was legal at the time,
Feds still looked out for cross-state and recreational sales,
and black market drugs being sold.
Tell us a little bit about the Feds.
You’ve had some raids at the shop over the years.
I’ve been through a few, yeah.
The shop’s been raided three times.
In 2007, they came in and they raided all the collectors in West Hollywood
on the same day.
There was no reason in particular it was just to scare us all.
And they did.
They scared us, that's for sure.
It was a horrible experience.
So, I was sitting at my desk right over here.
I looked up and that’s when I saw the DEA vest.
I started walking towards that door.
They were already walking in with the M16s pointed at me like this.
And I said, “I have the keys. Don’t break the doors.”
And that’s when the guy never-- he didn’t bat an eyelash,
he still had his gun pointed, and he said,
“Get the **** down on the ground, bitch.”
And I went, “OK!” And I got down the ground.
My girlfriend was-- her head was laying next to my head.
So we were facing each other. We both had our hands like this.
And the officer was standing right here.
And he was pointing the gun at us.
And then he looked up and he saw the cameras,
and he just started smacking this camera and breaking glass.
It was coming down on me and my girlfriend, and all over my dog.
And I was screaming and I was telling the officer right here,
“Tell them not to break the door, please.
You guys, I don't know why you need to break everything.
There’s keys right here. They’re sitting on the table.
Just take the keys.”
And that’s when they said, “We have our own keys.”
And just heard, “Boom.”
And that’s when I realized this was not going to be a fun day.
What was it like, though, when they busted into your place?
It's terrifying. It's terrifying.
There’s 20 guys in SWAT gear with their M16s and facemasks,
and they’re breaching all the doors with a battering ram.
You don't have a second to think.
And my first thought was my other friends who have been raided,
their dogs have all been shot during the raid.
They love shooting dogs.
They love breaking things and shooting things.
A dog’s not going to sue them.
And my first thought was, let me get my dog into her little purse.
So she’s safe.
And then once she’s safe, I could deal with these jerks, you know?
What do you think the federal agents think of you?
Well, I wasn't there the last time.
And I heard they were asking about their favorite girl.
I gave them some entertainment.
I also told them to make sure they bring furry cuffs for me next time
because I prefer them furry.
And they didn’t know what to do with it, they were like,
“What’s wrong with her? She likes this.”
But you just throw them off, throw them off, you know?
You know, I could sleep at night, I don’t know about these people.
Then again, you know, if they’re busting meth,
I have no problem with it.
But medical cannabis? It’s an absolute joke.
-Yeah. -For the Feds, it’s a joke.
Though these federal raids continue to happen, pot is increasingly
gaining legal status in the US and around the world.
Dina and Snoop are both vocal advocates of universal legalization.
What Denver, Colorado, did is showing financially, crimewise, healthwise,
is showing what it can be.
Washington took a step as well.
But Denver, Colorado, took the giant step of making it recreational 24/7,
and look what’s happening out there, right now.
I’ve very rarely seen someone who’s so dedicated to what they do.
Why do you do it?
So, I feel like I give a gift every single day.
I see myself as, like, the Mother Teresa of Marijuana.
That’s really what I want to be seen as.
In the Nancy Botwin character, it always bothered me that she was...
selling her--
They're using these kids and she was selling weed with her kids.
There was a lot more violence that she was involved in.
-Yeah. -And I’m the peacekeeper.
If they wanted to they could throw me into a box for the rest of my life.
And I would probably be there with people who deserve to be there,
which is really sad.
People that really hurt others,
and I don't think I'm hurting anybody by doing this.
I think I’m only helping people, so that’s why I find it so absurd.
You realize we’re all just humans on this Earth.
No one's better than the other.
And just like when I look at these Feds, it’s like, “I pay your salary.
We both bleed red. We both breathe the same air.
At the end of the day, you’re crawling into bed to go to sleep,
just like I am.
We’re all the same.
And one day you’re going to get cancer, or your mom or somebody.
And guess what?
You’re going to call me and I’m still going to be here to help you.
And that’s when I’ll say, ‘I told you so.’”