Cannabis consumption is becoming more normalized by the day. According to recent data, roughly 40 percent of American adults use weed on a weekly basis. With most of the country having some type of legal cannabis, some may wonder: which city smokes the most?
Insider Monkey ran the numbers for 2023 using data from the CFAH Cannabis Price Index, a guide to both regulated and traditional market cannabis flower. The team only ranked cities with over 200,000 residents. If cities had roughly the same consumption numbers, they were then sorted by the average price per gram of bud.
RELATED: Why can’t you dream on weed?
Which city consumes the most cannabis?
After taking a look at the data, the IM team placed the top 20 cannabis-consuming cities. While many people may assume a California city would take the top spot, the East Coast is home to the pot capital of the US.
According to the analysis, New Yorkers consume more cannabis than anyone else in America. The report suggests stoners in the Big Apple consume 62.3 metric tons of cannabis products annually. That’s over 137,000 pounds of pot, gummies, and vapes.
Coming in second (and likely surprising no one) is Los Angeles. Adults in La La Land consume around 35 tons of weed per year. Rounding out the top three is Chicago, where nearly 25 tons of cannabis products are consumed every year.
RELATED: These states missed the mark with cannabis regulations
The data is on par with population figures, a correlation that continues all the way down to the number seven slot. That’s when the lists start to diverge, as Denver is considered the 7th place cannabis-consuming city despite being the 19th most populous.
At the bottom of the list was Kansas City, Missouri. Despite robust sales of legal pot in the Show-Me State, adults in KC only consume around 1.4 tons of cannabis every year. However, as Missouri becomes a Midwestern hub of weed tourism, those numbers are likely to increase.
More people are using weed than ever before, a trend poised to continue. And while cannabis consumption numbers are aligned with population figures, things could very well shift in any direction as more states come online.
