Yahoo – AFP, Jocelyne Zablit, September 18, 2016
Adelanto councilman John "Bug" Woodard, Jr. stands on undeveloped desert land in the "green zone", an area designated by the city for industrial scale marijuana cultivation (AFP Photo/David McNew) |
Adelanto
(United States) (AFP) - Two years ago, the city of Adelanto, a crumbling
outpost in California's Mojave desert, was facing a bleak future as it teetered
on the brink of bankruptcy and struggled with double-digit unemployment.
"We
were about to vanish, to be incorporated into another city," says
councilman John "Bug" Woodard Jr. "The place was dying and in
total despair."
Today,
however, the once-desolate town is firmly back on the map, having joined a
handful of communities in California in embracing large-scale commercial
cannabis cultivation -- a move that smells of success as the state prepares to
vote in November on legalizing the use of recreational marijuana.
Though
California already allows the use of medical marijuana, the initiative to fully
legalize the drug -- seen as likely to succeed -- is expected to transform the
most populous state in the US and one of the world's largest economies into a
new epicenter for cannabis, bringing in billions in revenue.
According
to the Arcview Group, a cannabis investment and research firm based in
California, medical and recreational marijuana sales are expected to more than
double to $6.5 billion in the Golden State by 2020 if the drug becomes fully
legal after November.
Nationwide,
the legal cannabis market -- which stood at about $5.7 billion in 2015 -- is
projected to reach more than $23 billion by 2020, according to Arcview.
Apart from
California, several other states including Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and
Nevada will also vote on legalizing recreational marijuana on November 8, at
the same time as casting ballots in the presidential race.
A similar
ballot measure in California failed in 2010 but support has grown since, with
Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker among backers of the latest initiative,
which has the support of 58 percent of voters according to a recent USC
Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
The High
Desert Detention Center sits across from a future marijuana farm
in the
"green zone," an area designated by the city of Adelanto for
marijuana
cultivation (AFP Photo/David McNew)
|
Celebrities join scramble
For
Adelanto, the signs pointed to an opportunity too good to pass up.
Last
November, the town became among the first in California to permit medical
marijuana cultivation.
The
decision to welcome marijuana growers led to a flood of high-end investors
rushing to the town of 32,000 residents to buy up warehouses and plots of land
in two so-called "green zones" earmarked for cannabis cultivation,
local officials say.
"All
of a sudden, we have people driving over here in Bentleys to look at
property," said Woodard, 57, a real-estate agent with wispy
shoulder-length hair who organizes an annual jazz festival in the desert.
"Here
you have a building that was bought for $725,000 a couple years ago and now
it's worth four million," he added, pointing to an expanse of land dotted
with warehouses surrounded by Joshua trees and brush.
"When
you say Adelanto now, everybody knows where it is."
Among the
celebrities who have reportedly joined the mad scramble to snag a producer
license in the city, Woodard says, are rapper Snoop Dogg, one of reggae legend
Bob Marley's sons, Ky-Mani Marley, and actor Tommy Chong, of cult comedy duo
"Cheech & Chong."
City
officials said they expect cannabis production to easily reach 100 tons
annually once farming gets fully underway, bringing in much-needed tax revenue
to the decrepit town until now known more for its three prisons than for being
pot-friendly.
Blossoming industry
"We
are on the precipice of taking over the industry," Jermaine Wright, a
former pastor and member of the city council, said assuredly. "We're doing
what no other city has done when it comes to marijuana and this is going to
bring in other businesses and manufacturing."
The city's
cannabis ordinance stipulates that 40 to 50 percent of the workforce must be
drawn from the local population, a measure that should significantly reduce
unemployment, local officials say.
So far
Adelanto, which means progress in English, has issued 35 licenses to grow
cannabis and expects to hand out more in coming months, Woodard said.
Dan Olson,
who owns a company that manufactures air filtration equipment in one of the
"green zones," said he has seen the town transform as it prepares for
the expected windfall from cannabis farming.
"I go
out for a walk in the desert every morning and I can see the change," said
Olson, whose company has been in the city for 12 years. "You now see all
these cars with black tinted windows driving around and you see all these
warehouses where the weeds have been pulled and you know it's going
cultivation."
Christopher
Goodman, 59, who is in the process of purchasing several warehouses in the
city, said he expects to reap millions from his investment.
"The
demand is here and the more people get educated about cannabis the more people
will use it," said Goodman, who was in the auto business before turning to
cannabis farming several years ago.
"I'll
tell you what, I'd much rather smoke cannabis than drink beer and I mean that
wholeheartedly."
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