(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (voice-over): Not only is this legal, it pays the bills.
(on camera): So you get paid to smoke pot and write about it?
"WILLIAM BREATHES", MARIJUANA CRITIC: I get paid to smoke pot and write about it. Yes.
HARLOW (voice-over): His pen name is William Breathes and he's one of the first medical marijuana critics in the country. We can't show you his face because his job depends on staying anonymous. Just like a restaurant critic.
(on camera): You can be high doing your job.
BREATHES: And -- and my boss knows it.
HARLOW (voice-over): A decade after medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado, it's estimated about two percent of the state's population or more than 100,000 people have applied for medical marijuana licenses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you there.
HARLOW: According to one Harvard economist, roughly $18 billion is spent on pot every year in the U.S. and Denver's Westward paper has capitalized on just that. Hiring Breathes as a pot critic who reviews the dispensaries and the quality of the marijuana they sell.
JONATHAN SHIKES, MANAGING EDITOR, DENVER WESTWARD: He has his journalism degree. He's a good writer. And he could also punctuate and he could spell which was very different than a lot of people who applied for the job.
HARLOW: As for Breathes he has been smoking for 15 years to ease chronic stomach pains. But now his medicine pays his mortgage.
We tagged along to see for ourselves and we didn't take our cameras inside but take a listen.
BREATHES: Oh, that -- that's great.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want to do the cough?
BREATHES: I'm going to have to go with that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An eighth or --
BREATHES: Yes, I'll go with an eighth --
HARLOW (on camera): Can you -- can you show us what you got?
BREATHES: Yes. I got a joint. A figural joint of satara diesel (ph) and it's a really chunky real -- a real good looking pot.
HARLOW: I can smell it.
BREATHES: Yes, you can smell --
HARLOW: It's like permeating the whole car.
BREATHES: Yes, exactly. That muskiness is something we really look for --
HARLOW: Does that mean it's good?
BREATHES: Yes.
HARLOW (voice-over): Back at him office it's time to get to work.
BREATHES: I load up a little bit and taste it. Try and taste the smoke as it comes out. And -- I was going to say it has a real like woody finish. You know, after a few hits of that and try to feel what type of buzz it is and what it is doing to my body medically.
HARLOW (on camera): So you know the critics would say that you just want to get high.
BREATHES: Oh yes, definitely. And -- I'm not going to lie. There is a fun aspect to this medicine. But if you could see me on a morning when I'm really sick, when pot really helps me the most, it's -- it's is truly medical.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
