Plans for California marijuana resort “on the back burner” after town sold to oil company

LOS ANGELES Niptons new swimming hole is under construction, booze is returning to the restaurant and lottery tickets are being sold again at the ghost towns general store.

But it likely will be some time before those buds of green and gold that tokers really want are lining the shelves of stores in the California desert town, whose owners envision turning it into a marijuana-themed resort destination.

Were putting that on the back burner for now, David Gwyther, president of the cannabis technology company American Green, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

He added that, like other cannabis entrepreneurs, Niptons owners have discovered that even after California legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, meeting the myriad of regulations to obtain a license to sell it is not easy.

So while the 80-acre towns owner confronts those legal challenges, it is moving forward with renovations to Niptons Old West-styled hotel and other buildings on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

Although American Green sold the town to the exploratory drilling firm Delta International Oil & Gas for $7.7 million earlier this month, Gwyther said American Green controls that company too, adding the move was akin to moving Nipton from one pocket to another.

At the same time, he said Deltas stock-trading status as a fully reporting company puts it in a better position to raise money for the towns development.

When American Green purchased Nipton for $5 million last year it announced ambitious plans that included transforming the ...