Cannabis is set to become legal for all in California next year – and businesses are getting ready to cash in.

One firm has bought an entire town on the edge of the Mojave Desert – and is planning to turn it into the world’s first marijuana-themed resort.

CGTN’s Phil Lavelle reports from Nipton in California.

Californians have been able to smoke marijuana medicinally for years; But a new law will allow sale of the drug for recreational use.  

Businesses are set to cash in. In particular, the town of Nipton, on the edge of the state border with Nevada and just sold to a company planning a whole resort there centered around cannabis.

American Green said it will build a ‘cannabis-friendly hospitality destination’ on the site, which already has a hotel, general store, restaurant, campsite and RV park. But what’s really attracted American Green here is the infrastructure: Nipton is largely self-sustaining with its own solar-powered electricity and water supply. 

Offers have been coming for years, but only now has owner Roxanne Lang agreed to sell.

“This wasn’t the first company that approached us. We’ve had other companies too, in the same type of business. It’s not the first, because it’s set up for agriculture,” Land said.

Neither side would said how much money has been exchanged, though the site was reportedly listed for five million dollars initially. Under the plans, American Green said it wants to build a destination which would allow people to experience cannabis alongside those who don’t. Stephen Shearin is acting as a Consultant to American Green and General Manager of the project and tells us,  “With a rational, responsible approach to cannabis in a community, you can have a bustling community that doesn’t operate to the exclusion of other people.”

The farm is expected to be extended for growing marijuana, with another idea to bottle cannabis-infused water and have areas where people can also bathe in it. Most residents said they will stay to become part of the project which still faces a mountain of legal questions over how it will work. Nevertheless, company representatives have said that development should start in the coming weeks with a soft launch later this year, and the full launch sometime after Jan. 1 when the law takes effect.