Denver residents looking to indulge in the high holiday of 4/20 will be pleased to discover the city has earned the title of most weed-friendly in the US.
The Mile High City took the top spot in an analysis of the pro-weed attitudes and policies in America’s largest metro areas – thanks to its abundance of marijuana dispensaries and Colorado’s relaxed drug laws.
Cities earning spots two through five were Portland, Oregon; Las Vegas; Buffalo, New York; and Baltimore – all of which are in states that have fully legalized marijuana.
Americans in the south looking to smoke, however, will be disappointed to find many southern cities don’t extend courtesies to their 4/20 celebrants.
Louisville, Kentucky placed in the last spot for friendliest cities. Its home state only permits medicinal marijuana, restricting use to patients with 15 health conditions who have been recommended by doctors to consume the drug.
Preceding Louisville, Dallas; Atlanta; Houston; and Birmingham, Alabama took spots 49 through 46.
The rankings come from a Real Estate Witch and Leafly report that graded the 50 largest US metro areas based on 15 metrics.
They included the legal status and price of marijuana, number of dispensaries per 100,000 residents, number of fast food restaurants per 100,000 people, internet searches for weed-related terms and number of visits to online marijuana resources.
The findings revealed the top 14 friendliest weed cities were all in states where the drug is completely legal.
No cities located in states that prohibit marijuana in all forms made the list and the 15 least-friendly cities were all in states where the drug is only permitted under certain conditions.
Denver took the top spot in part because it has four times the number of dispensaries and 2.5 times the number of head shops as the average American city – with 10.4 dispensaries per 100,000 people.
The city also has ‘unbeatable’ pot prices. An ounce of high-quality weed costs $242, compared to the nationwide average of $318.
However, Portland, which held the top spot last year but slipped to second in 2024, has even cheaper marijuana – costing $213 per ounce. And thanks to its abundance of dispensaries – 13.7 per 100,000 residents – people in search of the drug won’t have a problem getting their fix.
For the third year in a row, Washington, DC has the most expensive weed, with one ounce of high-quality marijuana costing $597.
Other findings revealed Kansas City, Missouri is the most improved – rising 13 spots from 22nd place in 2023 to ninth place this year.
While Missouri only legalized recreational marijuana two years ago, Kansas City already has double the number of dispensaries per capita as Los Angeles, which legalized it in 2016.
And that city slipped the most spots in this year’s report. Los Angeles fell 13 places.
A surprising result, the analysis stated, was that Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where recreational pot is not legal, had more dispensaries than any other metro area, with 32.2 shops per 100,000 residents.
In Oklahoma, weed is only legal for medicinal uses.
David Downs, senior content manager at Leafly, said: ‘Cannabis is a medicine. They’re using it for sleep, anxiety, stress, pain.
‘The collapse of the price of marijuana in Oklahoma has been a public health victory for Oklahomans who now have a safer, less addictive option than a lot of the pharmaceuticals they were being offered.’
The price stands at $336 per one ounce, helping the state rise three spots this year.
In the United States, marijuana is fully legal – for recreational and medicinal use – in 29 states. It is fully illegal in four states.
Laws in the remaining states are mixed, meaning the drug may be permitted for medicinal use, allowed only in the form of CBD oil, be decriminalized or be a combination of these.
Decriminalization of marijuana means there are reduced penalties for cannabis-related offenses. In some states, possessing weed under certain amounts, which vary state-to-state, may be treated more like a traffic offense.
Penalties could include fines but will not result in an arrest, prison time or a criminal record for a first-time possession of a small amount for personal consumption.
Regardless of state law, the analysis found approximately 62 percent of Americans have tried marijuana. Fifty-five percent support legalization of the drug and one-third would prefer to use cannabis than drink alcohol.
Support for legalization was highest in the Midwest at 61 percent and lowest in the South at 44 percent.
A separate September 2023 Gallup poll, however, found 70 percent of Americans believe the drug should be legal – a new nationwide high.
Cannabis advocates say the drug has health and social benefits and that making it illegal does little to stop consumption and only leads to high levels of pointless incarcerations, often of young black men.
Despite the widespread support, 23 percent of Americans still oppose legalization, with cannabis opponents arguing widespread use leads to higher rates of mental health problems, substance abuse — especially among teens and young adults — and more stoned drivers on the roads, causing car crashes.
