In my 30-plus years in Los Angeles, I have smoked weed in close to 1,000 different places. From dorm rooms to dive bars, deserts to the dumpster that sits behind Canter’s Deli where Guns N’ Roses used to crash. In each unique adventure, I have taken note of my surroundings and how they affect my experience.

Los Angeles has always been ahead of its time when it comes to weed use. Beginning during the jazz era, when cats up and down LA’s Central Avenue scene were smoking “jive,” the herb was always appealing. In the 1950s, actors like Robert Mitchum went to jail for smoking “tea,” which ultimately led trailblazing 1960s bands like the Byrds to puff “grass” high atop the hills of Laurel Canyon. The 1990s saw the birth of a whole new sub-reality when Dr. Dre celebrated smoking “chronic” long before every rapper was bragging about their herculean weed intake as a way to appear more legit. The most obvious reason why Angelenos have been so far ahead in the weed space, in my opinion, is because this city offers every single type of setting smokers could crave. There are canyons, deserts, and mountains. There are beaches and parks and arts districts. If you’re feeling really frisky, there are theme parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios. Although, if you aren’t looking for a hefty fine and a six-month ban, I wouldn’t recommend lighting up on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride anytime soon.

Before we start, I want to make it clear that I will not be smoking on the bluffs overlooking Malibu or strolling on the Venice Beach boardwalk. Even though I have been stoned in these places many times, those spots aren’t what this piece is about. I am looking for the hidden gems, the back roads, the rooftops, open highways, and indica interstates less traveled.

Here are my five favorite spots to burn one down in the City of Angels.

Canyon Country Store

My first go-to spot is the Canyon Country Store in Laurel Canyon. This location may seem somewhat obvious to anybody who is familiar with the rich musical history of the canyon, but owner Tommy Bina keeps this place as a rock-n’-roll relic to a bygone era. The store serves as a makeshift museum, replete with photos of famous customers, canyon residents, and Tommy himself, who has stories for DAYS. When it comes to museums? I’ll take this place over The Broad any day of the week.

The store rests on a strip of boulevard where Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson lived called “Love Street” and was even checked in the Doors song of the same name:

Oh I see you live on Love Street, there’s a place where the creatures meet…

Yes, this store is that very place. And, the chances that Jim bought eggs here stoned out of his mind are fairly high… If you want to feel a spiritual connection to LA music’s magical era, I recommend rolling up something easy, like some Jack Herer OG, and kicking back on the front porch to watch celebrity foot traffic arrive for coffee. Then, go inside, order from the sandwich counter, and look around. The interior is slightly ramshackle, thankfully, but has not been renovated since 1982. If somebody ever thought to “Erewhon” this place, my guess is that canyon residents would burn it down.

I hung around the store for long enough that Tommy could smell that I was interested in the history. I became a mark, easily seduced by tales of Bowie asking for British cookies and Harry Styles shopping here regularly when he stays in the canyon. Glenn Frey famously said he saw David Crosby shopping here in the late 60s and knew LA was the place he was meant to be. Tommy spun through all of these quips before offering to take me on the “basement tour.” Following Tommy to the basement is rather intriguing. You’re sort of hoping to find some rare poetry written on a wall by Morrison or a roach left behind by Arthur Lee… Instead, Tommy will tell you alleged stories of the hundreds of musicians who used to smoke dope in the basement and then show you the spot where Jackie DelShannon shot her famous Laurel Canyon album cover. He will proudly show you the storage room actor Seymour Cassell lived in for a while… and became one of LA’s first pot dealers from. His rent? Roughly 18 dollars a month.

All of the Laurel Canyon stories begin here. Watch out for one little gem in the basement. Long ago, in that storage room, somebody painted a small cannabis leaf in a glow-in-the-dark pen on a light fixture. I shined a light on it, and caught one last glimpse into the free-love and low-rent era of the canyon.

The Trails

If a more natural setting suits you, you can’t go wrong with hanging around The Trails Cafe near the Fern Dell entrance of Griffith Park. A beloved spot for hikers, hot moms, hungover twenty-somethings, and folks just looking to spend more time outdoors. The cafe’s charming atmosphere is shaded by towering sycamores and oak trees, and makes you feel as if you are in a mountain campground. The serenity of this place makes it an ideal place to unwind or get a solid hit of nature. And it’s a pleasant way to kill hours in the sun that does not involve an hour-long car ride to the beach.

Recently, I hit The Trails Cafe for a lavender cookie and a coffee and hiked up towards the Griffith Observatory to look out at the city, puffing on the hybrid strain Sour Diesel to both energize my mind and relax. Smoking before a hike is not my usual routine, but for some reason, that day I felt capable of anything. Once you get around the summit and recognize classic film locations from Rebel Without a Cause, you feel more connected to LA than you did a few hours earlier. It’s a special place… just pray that you don’t get caught up in some topless influencer photoshoot. Solidify your afternoon by looking west, where the view on a clear day gives you a pristine glimpse of Catalina Island. Not only that, you are actually above the city smog. In my opinion, anytime you get to smoke weed above the smog in LA? Youʼve done something right.

El Royale Apartments

The El Royale apartment complex on Rossmore and Rosewood is famously known for its glamorous history and celebrity clientele throughout the golden years of Hollywood. Vintage chandeliers and intricate moldings compliment the grand lobby. The apartments themselves boast spacious floor plans, high ceilings, and hardwood floors. The famed Los Angeles architect William Douglas Lee, known for designing the Chateau Marmont Hotel, was also responsible for this masterful building. Actors like Nicolas Cage and Michelle Williams have called the El Royale home and it is decorated with a classic neon sign that has not been illuminated for the past fifty years. But, even though the sign remains unlit, there is no reason why you can’t get lit beneath it, which is why it’s my favorite rooftop deck in Los Angeles.

There is one problem… The El Royale is a private building and a doorman will block your entry if you just show up with a bunch of pre-rolls saying you are there to get high on the deck. Instead? Do what I did… try to schedule a tour as a prospective buyer or, even better, pose as a film location scout.

I was lucky enough to attend a party on the rooftop last summer and I was so inspired by the energy of the onetime discreet Hollywood getaway that I asked if there were any apartments available for rent. I was curtly told that there were not, but I casually mentioned that I was scouting for a possible film shoot and needed to bring back my producing partner to scout. We made sure to pack some Mendocino Grasslands Fatso indica for a mellow sunset experience, the panoramic view offering sweeping and iconic scenery. We were elevated, gazing at LA’s mountains and colorful cityscape. And I’ll be damned, every time I think this city has swallowed me up, I see the Hollywood Sign drenched in a reddening sunset and start to believe in things again. The 11th floor of the El Royale is like a natural hot spring for dreamers.

The Arts District

Thinking of other places to smoke in Los Angeles, I resorted to asking friends if they had any recommendations for prime puffing pastures. A few interesting suggestions trickled in. One person said his dream spot would be the field beneath the airport used in the ending scene of Michael Mann’s 1995 classic LA film Heat. Others suggested Joshua Tree, which is technically not in Los Angeles, but a longtime favorite of stoners, musicians, and UFO hunters for decades. Finally, another friend told me that he likes to get stoned and walk around the deep San Fernando Valley because he often sees his favorite porn stars at the grocery stores in Van Nuys. While all of these certainly have their merits, I was thinking a little more cultured, which is why I decided to go downtown to the legendary Arts District.

Smoking Pink Boost Goddess anywhere is a terrific decision, but doing it before an afternoon crawl around the Arts District will expose you to a cultural center of this city that many Angelenos rarely explore. Down here, artists, professionals, students, and others shuffle from live-work lofts to converted warehouses, galleries, and everything in between. Its spectacular history includes the legendary and now defunct Al’s Bar, where Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth got their start, and the coffee house DTLA, where Beck cut his teeth. Even though both places are long gone, the streets continue to exhale creative spirit. The visual artists who lived and worked down here for decades may not be household names, but many of them are widely celebrated across the globe for their innovation and worldly visions. There is something in the air down here, and it’s not just the plume of smoke I exhaled while strolling down East 3rd Street. You are surrounded by creativity and chances are, you will find something beautiful and inspiring.

The Arts District continues to flourish as a cultural center and home to galleries, performance spaces and dynamic restaurants. As you explore the area, which has been called one of LA’s safest neighborhoods, you will have a hard time choosing where to eventually sit down and imbibe, as some of LA’s best eateries tempt you nearly everywhere with sexy lighting packages, award-winning chefs, and custom cocktails. Manuela, the high-end Mexican restaurant located in the block-long arts center of Hauser and Wirth, sources seasonal foods from local farms and showcases commissioned artwork from some of the southland’s masters. They also have their own chickens on the premises who provide eggs to their casual diners that you can visit if you arrive before 5PM bedtime. Father’s Office, home of the heavily celebrated “Office Burger,” has a location here with 36 beers on tap. Bestia will ruin you for any other Italian food in the city. And then there is the coffee, breweries, and wineries like Boomtown, Neighborhood Wine, and Angel City. After indulging in the custom shops and crafty storefronts, recharge your afternoon at the Stiiizy dispensary on Commercial Street where you should stop once your high wears off and re-up for the next location.

I love the Arts District.The galleries and food and the energy here makes me wish I had bought something back before studio-lofts were selling in the mid $700,000’s. With all the history and activity, it almost gives off an art school Truman Show vibe, laced with a little THC and IPA. As the new wave band Missing Persons once famously declared, “nobody walks in LA.” Down in the Arts District, people actually do, and I recommend getting here with a tight pre-roll as soon as you possibly can and remembering why you moved to Los Angeles in the first place.

The Roosevelt Hotel Pool

This can not be a definitive Los Angeles smoking article without some mention of water, and since I swore I would avoid discussing Malibu lookouts and South Bay shorelines, I am turning my attention to the Roosevelt Hotel pool on Hollywood Boulevard. Smack dab in the middle of what was once the center of the universe, the Roosevelt has been a Hollywood standard since the late 1920s and has served as the former long-term home of Hollywood legends Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, oh, and Lindsay Lohan. As a man in his 40s, I have experienced nearly everything you can in this establishment, from sleeping in the lobby to bowling next to Sting in the Spare Room cocktail lounge to drunkenly falling into the pool during the MacGruber premiere party in 2010. But the pool is where the best action is, and beginning around 11AM, the patio comes alive with people-watching and sophisticated leisure that is tempered with a laid-back vibe that can make you feel as if you recently traveled back to the mid-1960s.

Start by securing a poolside daybed and ordering the Gulf Shrimp Ceviche or Smoked Scottish Salmon Tartare alongside your mimosa or whatever morning livener you prefer. Lock into the Wifi and kick back, restoring yourself with quick dips into the pool to observe the charade of hope and dreams that saunter in and out of the vicinity. You will see stars, wannabes, and never-weres. Waiters dreaming of big breaks will exchange Snapchat info with 20-something influencers posing on floaties while circling the underwater mural by famed British painter David Hockney. K-Pop stars saunter towards the lobby as open-chested foreigners spin unfulfillable promises while packing heat in their Euro-Speedos… It’s a circus of visual stimulation and an experience that rivals Las Vegas dayclubs, but with way less STDs. During LA's late 2010s modern hotel boom, pools began appearing on the roofs of spots like the Line or the Dream. Most were the size of a mid-century dinner table and about as deep as the latest Jeepers Creepers plot, but the Roosevelt has stayed true to its Tropicana-style roots and, other than the Sunset Marquis, it is truly THE genuine Hollywood pool experience—especially with some good weed.

In the early 1990s, The New Yorker published an article about an LA man who spent 42 years of his life at the Beverly Hills Hotel Pool, eating, sunbathing, and playing gin-rummy with locals near his private cabana. I’m not saying to dedicate 42 years of your life to the Roosevelt Hotel pool, but a few hours here with a nice Lost Farm 10 MG dragon fruit edible will brighten any afternoon in the City of Angels. The Tropicana bar is always a great place to chat up LA visitors who have grown bored of searching for stars' names on Hollywood Boulevard and are craving something more exclusive. I love advising wide-eyed tourists to skip trendy bars with thousand-dollar bottle service and head for dives like Ye Rustic Inn instead.

I’m not saying that these five LA spots are the greatest of all time, but they’re damn good. And I encourage you, the reader, to saunter forth with a curated pocket full of dope into these sanctuaries and tell whomever you may encounter that Hiii magazine sent you. And if you somehow manage to finesse your way into the El Royale Apartments and light up on the 11th-floor rooftop deck, you may see me on the other side, watching the sunset over that damn Hollywood Sign, but pay me no mind…

I’m just here scouting a film location…