To attract tourists, many states have wine or beer “trails,” which lead visitors to local vineyards and breweries.

Now Vermont’s newest industry has one of its own: the “Cannatrail.” The passport-type program encourages people to visit and collect stamps at 23 dispensaries around the state. All are members of the Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont, an advocacy group. Vermont is home to some 110 dispensaries.

No purchase is necessary to get a stamp, and prizes are available to those — 21 and older — who fill up their booklets, according to JB Sugar, a member of the group.

Vermont has the Long Trail, Appalachian Trail, Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and, yes, multiple beer trails, Sugar noted. Why not a Cannatrail?

“It’s meant to be fun, and it’s meant to normalize cannabis,” Sugar said. “We’re encouraging people to go out and partake in the diversity of retailers and towns in this great state.”

Sugar doesn’t know of any other states with a similar trail, but he did say regulators signed off on the idea. Unlike at a brewery, Vermont dispensary visitors can’t legally consume any product on-site. But it’s a way to showcase a growing industry, Sugar said.

More than 1,200 people are licensed to work in cannabis establishments, on top of the hundreds of other people licensed to work in weed, Sugar noted. The industry has contributed millions in tax revenues to state coffers, and encouraging people to visit different retailers could bring tourists to towns they might not otherwise visit, he said.

“It’s meant to be, like, ‘Hey, if you’re going to Barre, go check out Forbins,’” Sugar said, referring to a local dispensary. “‘And by the way, they’ve got some pretty good restaurants there, and it’s a beautiful drive.’”

There have been ups and downs in Vermont’s recreational market since it opened in 2022, Sugar said. Particularly in the northern half of the state, retailers have noted a marked decrease in the number of Canadian customers, he said.

But fall is the right time to launch the trail, said Sugar, who noted that leaf peepers are in town and outdoor growers will be harvesting their product.

“We’ve created a nice little industry,” he said.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Vermont’s Bong Trail”

This article appears in Sept 24-30 2025.

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