Denver residents looking to take advantage of the 4/20 major holiday will be pleased to discover that the city has earned the title of most weed-friendly city in the United States.
Mile High City took first place in an analysis of pro-weed attitudes and policies in the United States’ largest metropolitan 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.
Southern Americans looking to smoke, however, will be disappointed to find that many Southern cities do not extend courtesy to their 4/20 celebrants.
Louisville, Kentucky, ranked last for friendliest city. His home state only allows medicinal marijuana, limiting its use to patients with 15 health conditions who have been recommended by doctors to use the drug.
Previous Louisville, Dallas; Atlanta; Houston; and Birmingham, Alabama, took places 49-46.
The ranking comes from a report from Real Estate Witch and Leafly that evaluated the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States based on 15 metrics.
They included the legal status and price of marijuana, the number of dispensaries per 100,000 people, the number of fast food restaurants per 100,000 people, Internet searches for weed-related terms, and the number of visits to online marijuana resources.
The results revealed that the 14 most marijuana-friendly cities were all in states where the drug is completely legal.
No cities in states that ban marijuana in all forms made the list, and the 15 least supportive cities were all in states where the drug is only allowed under certain conditions.
Denver took the top spot in part because it has four times as many dispensaries and 2.5 times as many head stores as the average U.S. city — with 10.4 dispensaries per 100,000 residents.
The city also offers “unbeatable” pot prices. An ounce of high-quality weed costs $242, compared to the national average of $318.
However, Portland, which held first place last year but slipped to second place in 2024, offers even cheaper marijuana, costing $213 per ounce. And thanks to the abundance of dispensaries – 13.7 per 100,000 residents – people looking for this medicine will have no problem getting their fix.
For the third year in a row, Washington DC has the most expensive weed, with an ounce of high-quality marijuana costing $597.
Other results found that Kansas City, Mo., was the most improved, moving 13 places 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 it is this city that lost the most places in this year’s report. Los Angeles lost 13 places.
One surprising finding, according to the analysis, was that Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where recreational pot is not legal, had more dispensaries than any other metropolitan area, with 32.2 stores per 100,000 residents.
In Oklahoma, weed is only legal for medicinal purposes.
David Downs, Senior Content Manager at Leafly, said: “Cannabis is medicine. They use it for sleep, anxiety, stress and pain.
“The collapse in the price of marijuana in Oklahoma was a public health victory for Oklahomans who now have a safer, less addictive option than many of the pharmaceuticals available to them.”
The price stands at $336 per ounce, moving the state up three spots this year.
In the United States, marijuana is fully legal – for recreational and medical purposes – in 29 states. It’s completely illegal in four states.
Other states’ laws are mixed, meaning the drug may be authorized for medical purposes, authorized only as CBD oil, decriminalized, or be a combination of these.
Decriminalization of marijuana means that penalties for cannabis-related offenses are reduced. In some states, possession of weed in less than certain quantities, which vary from state to state, may be treated more like a traffic violation.
Penalties could include fines, but will not result in arrest, jail time, or a criminal record for the first possession of a small amount for personal consumption.
Regardless of state law, the analysis found that about 62 percent of Americans have tried marijuana. Fifty-five percent support legalizing the drug and a third would prefer to consume cannabis rather than drink alcohol.
Support for legalization was highest in the Midwest at 61 percent and lowest in the South at 44 percent.
However, another Gallup poll from September 2023 found that 70% of Americans think the drug should be legal – a new national high.
Cannabis advocates say the drug has health and social benefits and that making it illegal does little to stop use and only leads to high levels of unnecessary incarceration, often of young black men.
Despite broad support, 23 percent of Americans still oppose legalization, with cannabis opponents saying widespread use leads to higher rates of mental health problems, substance abuse — particularly among teens and young adults – and more drugged drivers on the roads, causing car accidents.
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