Real Estate Witch and Leafly recently teamed up to analyze marijuana-friendly cities for the purposes of ranking the top 10. Their list of Best Weed Cities in 2023 contains many of the same names we’ve seen in previous years. But there are a few surprises.
Rankings were based on a number of weighted metrics, including:
- cannabis legality
- the number of cannabis-prescribing medical providers
- the number of cannabis dispensaries and pharmacies
- cannabis affordability (both high and medium quality product).
How they determine the weight of each metric isn’t clear. But the most heavily weighted metric was legality at 10x. By comparison, the number of medical providers prescribing cannabis was weighted at 6x.
Surprise #1: Buffalo, NY Ranked Third
Portland, OR and Denver, CO are the top two cities on the 2023 list. No surprises there. Both cities are known for being excessively friendly to all things marijuana. But the third-place spot introduces the first surprise: Buffalo, NY. Although Buffalo is pretty liberal in its own right, it’s still a more conservative town than most of the other cities on the list. Its #3 ranking is a surprise on many levels.
It is also worth noting that NY state only legalized recreational marijuana in March 2021. Not only that, but state regulators also still have not fully implemented the infrastructure for legal recreational sales. Yet the Queen City seems to be doing just fine without state help.
Surprise #2: California Ranks Pretty Low
The first thought for many people hearing about the Best Weed Cities list is that California cities would take the top spots. Four Golden State cities did rank, but they took the 7-10 positions. Those cities are Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
California is a pretty liberal state when it comes to marijuana acceptance. What is killing them is the combination of regulation and taxes. It’s very difficult to operate a legal marijuana business in California and remain financially competitive. The state may rank well in terms of legality, but its reputation plunges when it comes to affordability.
Things That Aren’t Surprising
Going through the Best Weed Cities list also reveals a few things that are not surprising. For starters, none of the cities on the list are located in medical-only states. Despite medical prescribers being the second most heavily weighted metric, the legality metric trumps it for metros like Salt Lake City, UT.
Beehive Farmacy, a Salt Lake City medical cannabis pharmacy with a second location in Brigham City, operates in a state with no immediate plans to embrace recreational use. Theirs is a medical-only state with an extremely limited program governed strict rules.
Salt Lake City would definitely not fare well with the legality metric. They would probably do extremely well with medical prescribers, but they would also falter with affordability. In such a tightly controlled market, prices remain pretty high.
Blue State Dominance
Another non-surprise is that all the cities in the top 10 are located in blue states. Whenever the topic of weed friendliness comes up, blue states are perceived to be more friendly than their red counterparts – even when there are red states that do extremely well. It’s just the nature of the discussion.
If you are a cannabis user, do you think your city deserves a spot among the top 10? Whether you do or not, it’s a mixed bag from coast-to-coast thanks to different state laws, state and local politics, and public perception. This is all to say that the top 10 list is no means scientific. It is arbitrary, at best.
