A Guide To Marijuana Tourism In Los Angeles

As the city of Los Angeles transitions into its newfound role as a place for legalized marijuana, an increasing number of special tours are being offered, creating a space for marijuana tourism in southern California.

Los Angeles is a hotbed for tourism. Aside from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the City of Angels offers movie set tours, celebrity home tours, Hollywood sign tours, food tours, brewery tours and practically every other tour you can think of. And now, this plentiful list includes those of the marijuana variety, too.

Marijuana tourism is kicking off in Los Angeles

Marijuana tourism is a new industry for the city, and builds on a roadmap that Colorado, Washington and Oregon began drawing years before recreational use became legal in California. As the state continues to navigate the world of legal pot, let’s take a look at what this new facet of tourism entails.

How it all started

As with other cultural industries, LA decided to do with marijuana what the city does with every other burgeoning industry: make some money out of it.

Venice Beach has always been a popular choice for cannabis vendors

California joins a list of other states who have legalized marijuana

Where you can buy legally

Marijuana officially became legal to purchase for recreational use in California in January 2018. Now, residents can visit their local neighborhood dispensary; these are already in place across the city, due to the previously legalized medical use of pot. Under the new law, anyone who is 21 years or older can walk into a shop and purchase up to an ounce of marijuana per day, or eight grams of cannabis concentrates found in edibles like candies, brownies and beverages. Just don’t expect any late-night runs – the current law prohibits stores from selling between 10pm and 6am. And a fair warning to new shoppers in the area: a 15% cannabis tax in California also includes an up to 60% markup rate, which is projected to fluctuate every six months.

Cannabis advertising sign and billboard in Orange County, California

The Green Doctors medical marijuana evaluation examination center, in Venice Beach, California

If you’re not a California native, make sure you purchase only what you can consume before returning home. As marijuana is not federally legal, you can’t carry it over state lines, even if you’re going to another state where it’s legal.

With dispensaries popping up in LA faster than new Starbucks locations, it’s hard to find the cream of the crop. Here’s a list of our favorites.

Billboards can now legally promote marijuana shops, like this one in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles

LA weed tours

Given LA’s ability to turn anything into a tourism draw, it should be no surprise that the City of Angels offers legal weed tours. Though the tourism aspect of marijuana is still in its early stages (it’s newly legalized, after all) there are a handful of companies that provide everything from weed buses offering airport pickups and drop-offs to munchie crawls. There are even tours that delve deeper into the cultivation of California’s newest budding industry.

We provide a comprehensive list of the best marijuana tours to take in LA, so you can find what’s right for you. But no matter what tour you go with, remember the golden rule: puff, puff, pass.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

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