Following Colorado’s brave leap into adult legalization in 2012, there is general agreement that Denver currently sits as the cannabis capital of the United States – and maybe the world. On the flip side, Northern California remains a stronghold of OG producers and activists in both licit and illicit markets, earning The Emerald Triangle and the San Francisco Bay area a long-term international association with quality cannabis.
It’s hard to say which city may end up taking the crown, but with California and several other states coming online as the next big cannabis legalization state in the country, the fight is on to capture the title as the next new world cannabis capital. Los Angeles? Boston? Sacramento?
Adam Bierman is the founder of MedMen, a cannabis business consulting firm based in Los Angeles. Naturally, Adam predicts Los Angeles will emerge as the dominant global cannabis destination in a piece for CNBC:
Los Angeles will emerge as the marijuana capital of the world. The financial industry has Wall Street, the tech industry has Silicon Valley, and the cannabis industry will soon have Los Angeles. No disrespect to Denver, but Los Angeles is about to come out of the shadows and steal the spotlight.By some estimates Los Angeles’s medical cannabis market is already worth close to $1 billion, larger than Colorado’s entire recreational market. Unfortunately, most of that business operates in the shadows today. But that is about to change.
However, marijuana expert Troy Dayton CEO of The Arcview Group, a cannabis angel investment organization, argued in Masslive.com that the East Coast’s Boston could play a leading role as the next international cannabis destination.
“Unlike other places where cannabis is legal, Boston is within driving distance of many of the most populous places in America,” Dayton said. ‘This will make Boston the cannabis capital of the world in short order. This cannabis tourism will drive significant revenue, tax dollars, and job growth which will make legalization very attractive to neighboring states.”
Still yet others see cannabis as another crop that should become normalized like other commodity products in the central valley region of California, which serves as the backbone of US agriculture both domestically and abroad From Reuters:
“The Sacramento region should be to cannabis what Detroit is to automobiles in terms of both a center of innovation as well as production,” said Daniel Conway, who left his job as chief of staff to Sacramento Mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson to become Truth Enterprises’ managing partner. “This region has the ability to be to cannabis what Sonoma and Napa are to wine.”Centering some of that business in the Sacramento region would take advantage of the area’s proximity to farmland and agricultural processing facilities as well as such population hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area and tourist destinations like Lake Tahoe and the Napa Valley….
So what will be the next big cannabis capital of the world? The debate is on! Come join the argument this February 17 at the International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco, CA and find out!
