This city replaces its prisons with cannabis plantations

Adelanto is a small town in the middle of the desert in Southern California. It's home to a fairly impoverished community that until recently derived most of its income from the town's 4 prisons, with 3,400 inmates for 31,000 inhabitants. Hard hit by the real estate bubble, it has almost become a ghost town.

An Adelanto prison

When the citizens of California voted to change cannabis laws and allow its medical use, Adelanto banned all dispensaries in its neighborhood. Think of it as a remnant of the war-on-drugs culture. These remote communities often had problems with drugs; the problem was probably that the prohibition wasn't strong enough. Economic arguments in favor of cannabis sales have found few ears.

And when potential cannabis investors first came to Adelanto, almost every member of the City Council was against it. The exception was John «Bug» Woodard Jr. I had nothing to lose,« Woodard, who works as a real estate agent, likes to say. »The city couldn't be in worse shape than it already was. We were broke.

John «Bug» Wooward Jr.

After a year of tense debate, Woodard was unable to persuade the city to approve dispensaries. But the Council voted 4-1 to allow cannabis cultivation.

Adelanto therefore applied to become the second city in Southern California to be able to grow cannabis. Adelanto used to earn 160,000 $ from its prisons. It hopes to earn 12 million $ a year from the 27 licensed growers. Permits are given for one year, giving the city time to see how well this economic transition is going. Plantations are not allowed near parks, schools or churches, and must secure their access with security cameras and alarms. On the other hand, no dispensaries have yet been authorized.

The consequences are already being felt. The price of a square meter of land has soared, fanned by a new agricultural fever. And several cannabis personalities are attracted by this new promised land. One of Bob Marley's sons, Ky-Mani Marley, has been granted a license to grow a particular variety of cannabis. Tommy Chong would be very interested, as would B-Real of Cypress Hill.

A city that was once reluctant to change is now welcoming these new industrialists and businessmen with open arms. It's not for nothing that’adelanto means «progress» in Spanish!