Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto · Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto

Chapter 2: Going Green

June 7, 2023·35 min·2 clips

Adelanto projected $12 million a year in cannabis tax revenue for a city whose entire budget was $14 million, and by 2017 they actually achieved a $400,000 budget surplus.

Bug comes into this chapter on a win. The November 2014 election knocked out three incumbents, and a local television host called Adelanto's council turnover an insurgency. Bug preferred revolution. His plan was plain enough: legalize marijuana cultivation and use it to help pull Adelanto out of trouble. Charlie Glasper was the hard part. Mark Gutglick, who had covered Adelanto for decades, says Glasper did not want the city involved in marijuana sales. Bug and Mayor Rich Kerr drew a line for him. Adelanto would allow growing, they said, but keep sales away from residents. That promise moved the vote. On November 23rd of 2015, the medicinal weed cultivation ordinance passed with Glasper included. The win still feels uneasy. Diana Esmeralda believed Glasper was already showing signs of memory loss. She remembers walking in with Tim before a council meeting and realizing Glasper did not recognize them. Glasper died in 2021, so the show cannot ask him what his health meant for that decision. Diana believes Bug and Kerr knew what was happening and used it. Then another surprise lands: Jermaine Wright flipped too, after opposing the marijuana plan from the start.

As heard by us

A patient civic story that lets Adelanto's marijuana plan expose the town's fault lines.

The episode follows Adelanto's marijuana push as it shifts from campaign promise to city hall maneuver, and it stays close to the people who made that turn possible.

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Why you'd press play

You want a local power story about Adelanto, where a council shift turned a marijuana plan into policy.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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