Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

Retail sales of cannabis will begin in California in January, and according to new research, it’s going to bring massive changes to the state’s largest city.

New research from the analytics group New Frontier Data claims Los Angeles could soon become the largest single cannabis market in the world after “adult use is implemented there.” That’s a major claim, and it means a lot for the city, the state and even the world.

“We’ve never seen a single municipal market, a single city market, as large as Los Angeles stand up a fully legal and regulated cannabis environment,” John Kagia, executive vice president for industry analytics at New Frontier Data, told Cannabis News Box. “We expect to see a number of effects following this transition.”

Kagia said there will be a large demand for legal cannabis in the city, and the new market will help eradicate illicit markets. Many industries will benefit from legalization, including existing industries that will now have a new market. Kagia said accountants, marketers, designers and more will benefit from new cannabis-related business. Finally, he said tourism could go up significantly after social use begins.

“It’ll be very interesting to see, once adult use is legal here, how tourists respond to cannabis being available in the Los Angeles milieu and what that does to stimulate new tourism demand from people who, say, wanted to go to Denver or wanted to go to Seattle but are much more excited about coming to L.A. because L.A. was already a top destination pre-legalization,” Kagia said. “It could become a more attractive destination now that it has cannabis.”

It’s unclear if that means L.A. will start looking a lot more like Amsterdam, but knowing California, it’s probably more likely the city will find its own way to form social cannabis spaces that fit its existing personality. One can imagine going to a social cannabis space in L.A. that’s filled with sleek, modern designs or, alternatively, beach themes to consume cannabis products with locals.

While Colorado and Oregon and the states that followed legalizing was significant, Kagia said all of that pales in comparison to California legalizing. He believes other countries will be paying close attention to California, the sixth largest economy in the entire world, as it navigates the effects of legalization.

“I don’t think most of the country appreciates its significance and the true impact of it. We will only truly understand once the first social use establishments open their doors,” Kagia said.