Yo, peep this new study, fam. It turns out that New York City be smokin’ more weed than any other city in the whole damn world! They be puffin’ on a whopping 62.3 metric tons of that herb every year. That’s like 137,000 pounds, bro! This study, called the “2023 Cannabis Global Price Index,” was put together by some health info resource called CFAH. These dudes collected data on weed prices from 140 cities across the globe.
But it ain’t just about who smokes the most, my dudes. This research also looked at which cities got the most expensive and cheapest ganja, and what the price trends look like in the U.S.
So CFAH checked out all them countries that blaze the most and the least, to narrow down the list of cities for this study. They made sure to consider whether weed was legal or not in each place. Then they picked the final 140 cities that would give them the best comparison of worldwide weed prices. They even used surveys from regular folks in each city to find out how much a gram costs. And they looked at data from the World Health Organization to track total consumption. For U.S. prices, they used some fancy model called SARIMA, which accounts for patterns in data or whatever.
Now let’s talk about NYC, my dudes. These guys are on a whole ‘nother level when it comes to smokin’ that sticky icky. Sydney, Australia came in second place, even though weed is illegal down under. They be burnin’ through 45.8 metric tons a year, which is still way less than NYC. Los Angeles took third place with 35 metric tons per year. Then you got Chicago with 24.9 metric tons and Rome with 21.9 metric tons per year.
They ranked the top 20 cities in this study. Check it out, from sixth to twentieth place we got: Houston, Toronto, Tokyo, Prague, Vienna, Hamburg, Phoenix, Montreal, Melbourne, Philly, Vancouver, Uskudar, Dublin, Denver, and Annapolis.
But it ain’t just about who smokes the most, my dudes. We also gotta talk about who’s payin’ the big bucks for their bud. So in Japan, where weed is illegal and hella criminalized, they chargin’ a crazy high price. Tokyo be servin’ up that expensive shit at $33.8 per gram! Damn son! Dublin and Tallinn ain’t playin’ either. They chargin’ $22.50 and $22.10 per gram, respectably.
But don’t trip, my dudes. Some places got that budget-friendly bud too. Montreal holdin’ it down with the cheapest prices at just $5.90 per gram. Bangalore and Notre Dame ain’t far behind with $6 and $6.20 per gram.
Now here’s the crazy thing, my dudes. It don’t matter if weed be legal or not in a city, ’cause prices be all over the place. The top 10 most expensive cities got six where weed is illegal and four where it’s legal. And the cheapest cities only got a slight difference. Six where it’s legal and four where it’s illegal.
Now let’s talk about the future of weed prices in the U.S., fam. These CFAH researchers used their fancy SARIMA model to make some predictions. Lookin’ at their graph of prices over the past 30 years, you see that crazy zigzag pattern. Shit be all over the place! But they still try to predict the future price of weed in America. They think that by 2030, the average price per gram could drop to $5.61.
And if you been payin’ attention to what’s been goin’ on in them legal states, you know this makes sense. Prices been droppin’ as the market keeps growin’. And who knows, maybe we gonna see federal legalization soon too!
So New York City gonna keep holdin’ that crown for smokin’ the most weed in the world. Ain’t no doubt about it. Especially with the recreational market takin’ off. Stay blazin’, my dudes.
Peace out.