Cannabis in Los Angeles
If modern cannabis culture has a capital, it's here. The strains, the artists, the dispensary aesthetic, the legal fight, most of it ran through LA before it ran anywhere else.
Written from the inside. The owner of this site is from Los Angeles, born and raised.
What's where in Los Angeles
Tap a pin for details. Dispensaries, events, and community pins inside the Los Angeles bounds.
Tile data © OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO
378 active retail licenses in the Los Angeles area
Every active retailer from the California Department of Cannabis Control's public license search, plus a hand-picked few we've written about. Each shows on the map above as a green pin.
DCC data refreshed May 20, 2026
- Crenshaw Holistic Caregiver, California Cannabis7415 Crenshaw Blvd · 90043Rec + MedMicrobusinessC12-0000130-LIC
- Josephine & Billie's [equity Retailer]1535 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd · 90062Rec + MedC10-0000866-LIC
- Mecca Hospitality Group LLC [equity Retailer]6609 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite A · 90038Rec + MedC10-0001310-LIC
- Treehouse Botanicals Corporation [equity Retailer]11614 Venice Blvd W · 90066Rec + MedC10-0000812-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Belmont404 Redondo Ave · 90814Rec + MedC10-0000735-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Downtown Long Beach1248 Long Beach Blvd · 90813Rec + MedC10-0000668-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Lakewood5440 Del Amo Blvd, Suite 100 · 90808Rec + MedC10-0001133-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Los Alamitos3401 Norwalk Blvd N · 90808Rec + MedC10-0000633-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Paramount2801 E Artesia Blvd · 90805Rec + MedC10-0000658-LIC
- Dosist Ws; Westside Station; Final Bell Ws7731 Hayvenhurst Ave N · 91406Rec + MedMicrobusinessC12-0000266-LIC
- Pirate Town Cannabis Company [equity Retailer]134 N Gaffey St, Suite G · 90731Rec + MedC10-0000964-LIC
- Haven Cannabis Marijuana And Weed Dispensary - Maywood3951 Slauson Ave · 90270Rec + MedC10-0000082-LIC
- Green Earth Collective Granada Hills And Green Earth Co. [equity Retailer]17719 W Chatsworth St · 91344Rec + MedC10-0000791-LIC
- Natural Aid Pharmacy, A Cooperative Corporation [equity Retailer]8124 Foothill Blvd W · 91040Rec + MedC10-0000342-LIC
Source: California Department of Cannabis Control public license search. Verify status on the official portal before relying on any single entry (California).
Neighborhoods that matter
- VeniceBoardwalk medical doctors handed out 215 recommendations for decades. The closest thing California had to an open-air cannabis bazaar before 2018.
- Compton & WattsInseparable from the cultural history of West Coast cannabis. Snoop, Dre, Game, Kendrick. The records that exported LA weed culture worldwide came from here.
- Hollywood & West HollywoodWeHo allowed on-site consumption lounges before most US cities. The first generation of luxury dispensary design lives here.
- Downtown / Arts DistrictCultivation and packaging warehouses cluster east of downtown. The supply backbone of the legal LA market.
- Echo Park & Silver LakeWhere the smaller, design-forward licensed shops opened first after 2018. The boutique end of the LA retail spectrum.
The story of cannabis in Los Angeles
California medical cannabis was born in San Francisco with Dennis Peron's club, but the political and commercial scale of it was built in LA. By the early 2000s, Los Angeles had hundreds of caregiver storefronts operating in a regulatory gray zone, with green-cross signs on Sunset, Melrose, and every stretch of Venice Boulevard. The city repeatedly tried to cap, license, and shut them down, and the storefronts repeatedly outpaced city hall.
OG Kush, the strain that re-shaped modern hybrid breeding worldwide, was developed in LA in the early 1990s. Its origin is debated (Florida claims a hand in it, Northern California claims the original cut) but the LA growers were the ones who stabilized it and made it the cornerstone of the modern West Coast catalog.
Proposition 64 passed in November 2016 and recreational sales went live January 1, 2018. Six years in, the legal market in LA is still fighting an illicit market with lower taxes and friendlier prices. Local taxes layered on top of state cannabis tax push retail prices well above unlicensed alternatives, which has slowed legal-market growth even as social acceptance climbed.
Notable facts about Los Angeles
- OG Kush and its descendants (Bubba Kush, GSC, Wedding Cake) trace back to Los Angeles breeders.
- LA County has more licensed cannabis retailers than any other county in the United States.
- On-site consumption lounges remain rare because of state preemption rules. WeHo and a handful of other LA cities are the exceptions.
- The combined state, county, and city tax burden on legal cannabis in LA can exceed 35 percent.
Coming soon
Licensed dispensary directory, event calendar, neighborhood-level consumption rules, and a wizard for getting a Los Angeles retail or delivery license. The California cultivation and license wizard is the next big addition to the site.
Sources
- California Department of Cannabis Control
- City of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation
- Prop 64 (Adult Use of Marijuana Act, 2016)
Cultural and historical context is sourced from local archives, contemporary reporting, and policy records. If you spot something wrong, write hello@can-nabis.com.