Forget the Big Apple, New York is the Big Green with New Yorkers consuming more marijuana than any other city in the world.
New York is smoking. eating and vaping more than 77 tons of weed a year.
Los Angeles consumes just over 36 to be the second ranked US city.
Even more interesting is that marijuana is legal in Los Angeles, and only partially legal in New York.
NYC Cannabis Parade (pictured in May, 2017) is a four-decade old original New York City tradition and is part of the The Global Marijuana March which was born in New York City where New Yorkers are now cited for being the world’s leading consumers of pot
A woman in pictured smoking marijuana in Union Square, New York where the city’s inhabitants are consuming the most weed in the world according to a study
Karachi, Pakistan came in second to New York when broken down globally. While it is illegal there, they are still consuming just under 42 tons of the green goods.
The findings were published in a study by Seedo, which analyzed weed consumption from around the world.
Dr. Igor Zhuravenko, who is one of only a handful of doctors in New York that can legally prescribe medical marijuana to patients, said he was extremely surprised by the city’s ranking in the Mary Jane world market.
He said other cities should have taken the green crown before New York.
‘Say Holland, Amsterdam is the capital of marijuana use right now,’ he told WPIX. ‘ I really doubt they don’t have good numbers in Holland.’
While Amsterdam is included in the study, they do not compete with the mass quantity that New Yorkers are consuming annually.
Reefer is also legal in Amsterdam, but in the United States it is still a schedule I drug under the federal government.
Schedule I drugs include heroine, LSD, peyote, ecstasy and marijuana, which, as Dr. Zhuravenko points out ‘totally doesn’t make sense.’
The government lists the ganja under the highest classification a drug can receive.
The study by Seedo does a breakdown of top city’s in the United States consuming marijuana
The study focused on consumption of marijuana in all forms from smoking and vaping to eating
If New York moved forward in legalizing bud, the study suggests it would provide an economic boom for the city, bringing in an estimated $150 million in tax revenue.
Dr. Zhuravenko said that regardless of the potential for misuse, it was better if the government was involved in the sale of pot.
‘In the medical term I think it should be controlled in certain amount,’ he said.
‘In the world we live in, we have 74 tons on the street. We have people who are selling it, and I’m sorry, you have no idea what they’re selling.’