Adelanto,
California, population 32,000, is a little city in the middle of the desert, the
kind of place you pass by without even noticing on the drive from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas.
Like many of the cities in sprawling San Bernardino county, it
faces severe financial problems, teetering on the edge bankruptcy. For a time,
there was even talk of dissolving Adelanto and absorbing it into its larger
neighbor Victorville.
But then, along came Johnny “Bug” Woodard and his
big idea: Save Adelanto by legalizing marijuana. Woodard, a self-described
gun-toting Tea Party Republican, decided to run for city council on the promise
of turning around the town's finances by allowing the mass cultivation of
cannabis within city limits.
"I had already picked out some property in
Arizona to move my family to Arizona, because I really didn't think I'd be
elected," says Woodard. "I mentioned the 'M-word.' Mention the 'M-word':
political suicide."
|