The largest county in the contiguous United States, and one of California’s most uneven cannabis jurisdictions. Unincorporated SB County prohibits all commercial cannabis activity — everything happens at the city level. Adelanto is the High Desert anchor. And Adelanto is also the city whose former Mayor Pro Tem is serving a 5-year federal sentence for a $10,000 bribe. Here’s the pathway.
Every figure below is sourced to a SB County / city / federal document — see each card. These are the four regulatory surfaces we’re most often called in on, and the real cost of getting them wrong.
Former Adelanto Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright is serving 5 years federal prison for accepting a $10,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent relocating a marijuana business — plus a $1,500 payment to torch his own restaurant. His appeal was denied September 2024. The Adelanto cannabis-permitting lane remains under elevated federal and county scrutiny. (DOJ; appeal denial)
Unincorporated San Bernardino County prohibits all commercial cannabis activity — cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, retail, delivery, testing, transportation, provision, sale. Operating an unpermitted site = immediate abatement and daily administrative penalties. (SB County Code Enforcement)
The SB County Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit joined the state environmental-enforcement coalition in April 2024, treating illegal cultivation as an environmental threat (water theft, hazardous-waste dumping, illegal grading). The enforcement surface is broader than cannabis-only code. (SB County, April 2024)
Adelanto no longer accepts Temporary Use Permits — all commercial cannabis activity must operate from permanent structures in LM, LMCO, MI, or ADD zones under a CUP. Operators with stranded capital in temporary structures have no legal path to continue. (City of Adelanto)
This is the work we do: City of Adelanto CUP preparation (LM / LMCO / MI / ADD zones), City of San Bernardino Chapter 5.10 filings, Barstow / Needles / Hesperia / Victorville pathway mapping, Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit response on unincorporated abatement notices, and Metrc + cultivation canopy-tax reconciliation for High Desert cultivators. Most of our SB County work comes by referral from operators who need defense against county or federal scrutiny.
San Bernardino County is geographically the largest county in the contiguous United States and operationally one of California’s most uneven cannabis jurisdictions. The unincorporated county itself — the biggest piece of California land under a single planning department — prohibits all commercial cannabis activity: no cultivation, no manufacturing, no distribution, no retail, no delivery pick-up, no testing. Enforcement is coordinated by the Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit (CEU) within Land Use Services, which in April 2024 joined the state environmental-enforcement coalition framing illegal cultivation as an environmental threat (SB County). The CEU works alongside CDFW, Water Boards, the Sheriff, and DCC investigators.
Everything commercial happens at the city level, and the dividing line runs roughly along the Cajon Pass. North of the pass, the High Desert cluster — Adelanto, Hesperia, Victorville, Barstow, Needles — is where most of the county’s cannabis footprint actually lives. Adelanto is the anchor: the city adopted one of California’s earliest full-stack commercial cannabis programs and built the Green Zone industrial district to host roughly 60 licensed cultivation operators at peak. Today Adelanto’s cannabis permitting program requires a CUP and restricts activity to Light Manufacturing (LM), Light Manufacturing Cannabis Only (LMCO), Manufacturing Industrial (MI), or Airport Development District (ADD) zones — and Temporary Use Permits are no longer accepted; permanent structures only.
Adelanto also carries the federal-corruption overhang. In 2022 former Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright was convicted of accepting a $10,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a marijuana-business relocator, and of paying $1,500 to torch his own restaurant for insurance (DOJ; SB Sentinel coverage). He was sentenced to 5 years federal prison in October 2022 and his appeal was denied September 2024. Operator diligence in Adelanto now has a federal tail.
South of the Cajon Pass, the picture is mostly closed. The City of San Bernardino permits a limited retail and commercial-cannabis program under Chapter 5.10 of its municipal code with a cap and sensitive-use buffers — the city’s Commercial Cannabis Activity portal lives at sanbernardino.gov/226. Colton, Hesperia, Needles, Barstow, Montclair, Victorville, and Yucca Valley each operate their own ordinances — some retail, some non-retail only, some delivery only. Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Redlands, and most of the Inland Empire south of the pass remain closed. That leaves a meaningful share of the IE population inside cannabis-prohibited city limits — an arrangement that drives delivery demand into the region from licensed operators in neighboring LA and Riverside counties.
Figures sourced from SB County Land Use Services, the City of Adelanto, and DOJ / federal court records. Exact active-license counts by license type not publicly consolidated — primary source: DCC Unified License Search.
Six inflection points — five of them centered on Adelanto, the High Desert anchor, and the federal case that defined the city’s permitting lane.
City of Adelanto adopts Ord. 525 and begins permitting. By 2016 it’s one of California’s earliest full-stack commercial cannabis cities — cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, testing, and (later) retail.
FBI raids Adelanto City Hall as part of “Operation Heat Wave.” Subsequent indictments of multiple city officials follow.
Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright convicted of bribery + attempted arson-for-hire on his own restaurant.
Wright sentenced to 5 years federal prison. The Adelanto cannabis lane enters post-conviction diligence mode.
SB County Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit formally joins state environmental-enforcement effort — expanding unincorporated enforcement beyond cannabis code into water-theft and grading violations.
Ninth Circuit denies Wright’s appeal, closing the Adelanto corruption case and confirming the enforcement posture.
Qualitative share of San Bernardino County land area by cannabis-regulatory posture. Unincorporated land dominates the county footprint by area but hosts no commercial licenses; the cannabis economy concentrates in a handful of permissive cities, primarily north of the Cajon Pass.
For exact current license counts by activity and city, use the DCC Unified License Search filtered to San Bernardino. Unincorporated-county enforcement data lives at the Cannabis Enforcement Program portal.
Every SB County city sets its own ordinance — and most say no. These are the active programs. Click through for each city’s local pathway, zoning map, and tax rates.
Full stack in LM / LMCO / MI / ADD zones. CUP + Cannabis Regulatory Permit. Permanent structures only.
Capped retail + commercial under Chapter 5.10. CUP + Cannabis Business Permit.
Retail + delivery. CUP + Commercial Cannabis Permit.
Border-market retail. Cannabis Business Permit + CUP.
Non-retail only (limited). CUP + Cannabis Business Permit.
Limited industrial. CUP + Cannabis Regulatory Permit.
City- and county-level posture figures. Daily administrative penalties for unincorporated violations are set by SB County Code Enforcement Division — verify exact schedule with Land Use Services.
Sources: SB County Cannabis Enforcement Program, DOJ, City of Adelanto. Statewide unincorporated-permit counts reconstructed from county-by-county ordinance survey.
A non-exhaustive list of operators anchored in SB County’s permissive cities.
The LA-anchored vertically-integrated brand operates a San Bernardino retail location — its footprint inside the city’s Chapter 5.10 capped retail program. (stiiizy.com)
Catalyst Cannabis’ San Bernardino location serves Colton, Loma Linda, Rialto, Highland, and Bloomington from the city’s capped retail stack. (catalyst-cannabis.com)
Roughly 60 licensed cultivation operators anchored Adelanto’s Green Zone industrial district at the 2018 peak. Post-price-collapse consolidation has thinned the cohort — exact active count via DCC search.
Needles hosts the county’s border-market retail cohort — serving cross-state and I-40 corridor demand under local Cannabis Business Permit + CUP.
From Adelanto CUP through DCC issuance, through Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit response, to 24-hour federal-scrutiny defense — your SB County regulatory lift runs through one named team.
DCC application coordinated alongside Adelanto, SB City, or Barstow local pathway.
Zoning verification against LM / LMCO / MI / ADD, packet engineering, permanent-structure planning.
Code Enforcement Cannabis Unit abatement response; federal-scrutiny posture for Adelanto operators.
