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Why is weed, especially good weed, so fucking expensive?

Dresden

Dresden

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Joined
Feb 2, 2010
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I know supply and demand and all that from college microeconomics, but seriously, I don't get why good weed or even shitty weed has to be so fucking expensive. It's just a plant that is grown, needs no extraction, and no chemical reactions to become a drug. The only thing I can think of is that it's because the demand for pot is so high the world over that growers just can't seem to catch up to demand? However, even in Amsterdam at the coffee shops, good pot is still exorbitantly priced. What gives?
 
it takes a lot of work to get the buds really good. if you just grow the plant with no effort, you can still get high but there wont be so much potency.
 
$120 per quarter ounce? Give me a break. A single cannabis sativa plant can make hundreds and hundreds of times that weight in buds over and above a quarter oz. (if I recall correctly) bag of pot as these plants have been known to grow extremely large in some cases. There's no way it costs anywhere near $120 to get 7 measly grams of decent bud. I call out grower greed as the most likely source of this rather egregious cannabis buyers' problem. However, I know many growers use indoor, air conditioned spaces which don't come cheap when they also have to be kept top secret and offer only limited growing space. On the other hand, many sativa plants are grown somewhere deep in the woods especially on national forest land and are not noticed by law enforcement usually, especially if only one plant is grown per secret grow spot and that grow spot is highly secluded or just off the beaten path significantly. Even if the plant or plants are discovered and destroyed by Uncle Sam, though, usually the grower will not get caught. Something just doesn't add up in this economic price structure for kind bud. Or is it just that so many people have been conditioned to pay such top dollar for good bud with no breaks for buying a whole ounce even that kind bud pricing has become an near automatic boon for the grower? I realize you can't just throw out some dank seeds in the woods and come back 6 months later expecting pounds of keif, but no other plant routinely brings kind bud prices while ostensibly growing out of the ground for free or close to it.
 
the thing about the Netherlands is that cannabis production still illegal but coffeeshops have a license to hold a stash and sell it to the users. technically it's still illegal for the shop owners to buy bulk amounts from producers, so the system there is pretty weird. a couple of years back the Netherlands cracked down hard on commercial growers so that a lot of "dutch" weed actually got produced in Germany... don't know how it is today though.

and yeah, production of high quality indoor is pretty cost intensive (electricity, proper soil, fertilizer, there are a lot of things to consider, no matter if you grow organic or not).

good outdoor is a bit cheaper than indoor, but not that much unfortunately, because most commercial growers do it indoors (especially in the countries where it's still illegal).
 
Buying off the black market?

Find a dealer you like and, preferably, that likes you. Become a regular customer. Over time, watch the prices start dividing.




Honestly, as I've grown older weed has gotten drastically cheaper and the overall quality has skyrocketed. Dealers with high prices don't last long around here unless they're a kid selling to other kids.

If the guy you're fuckin' with charges too much, stop fuckin' with him. You might be surprised if/when he calls you to let you know he's got product ready to go at, like, 85% what he typically charges you. It's happened to me more times than I can recall right now.




And try to remember, guys, we don't do price discussion 'round hurr.
 
Salutations Dresden,

Dresden said:
...I don't get why good weed or even shitty weed has to be so fucking expensive.
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You and i seem to be standing on a same side of the fence, to me it's nothing but the result of racist/unjust laws allowing bigotry on a national scale to some varying degree, depending on jurisdictions...

At least judging from our last few recent governments attitudes i guess that's our fate in Canada, relatively to cannabis and its alledged "dangers" vs children, to be exact... Now, when politicians persist over the years in repeating obcessively that our youth requires some extra-special protection against "Marrie-Wana" under the form it's about to take under Justin MiniPET Trudeau, aHummm... It's all becoming pretty clear to me that this is yet another prohibitionist attempt and hence i'll be watching for UNGASS 2016 (April 19-21) as it's most probable we haven't seen the last worldwide bigot prohibitionist effort just yet in the Commonwealth.

:|

So, why is weed expensive when i could expect it to cost me no more than 2 $/g if i attempted to grow it indoors myself like with tomatoes??

M'well i suspect prohibition is the usual source of hate mongering over cannabis, while in media alone alcohol/tobacco receive such paradoxal treatment, which doesn't stop politicians from voting obscene budgets over para-military police, helicopters, 4-wheel vehicules and also i'll bet we're going to see drones anytime everywhere soon, etc.

To me the truth is cannabis serves as an open-bar excuse for those who make a dime on it. It's only natural the price shall go up when bigot people are used to align and demand their "fair" $hare, in the name of children.

8)

Dresden said:
...growers just can't seem to catch up to demand?
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If only we could launch cooperatives to compete Big Cannabis... IMO that should do it but it's all about greedy money.

Dresden said:
What gives?
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Although the situation apears to be so much more relax in your country i'd reason Big Prohibition pays - and we continue to feed it nonetheless.

On a global scale i figure the cannabis customers still await respect instead of just simple tolerance. There's a significant difference.

Yet this is only my intuition speaking. How do i rate??

;)

Good day, have fun!! =D
 
Its called economics both large scale and small scale. Your local economy decides what you pay for cannabis. Sure there are statistical out layers where people pay way more others pay way less but as with every commodity the buyers make the price whether they realize it or not. If everyone stopped buying cannabis at the going rate that rate would change, that is what is meant by supply and demand. Yes extra stock can make a price drop but that is dependent on other factors too, i.e. if your friend has a pound and doesnt mind selling an ounce a week slowly then he will not adjust his price, if a large supplier gets 3 tons more they may to get rid of it quicker.

So basically you have 2 options change your local economy, could be as easy as shopping around or change the large economy which is decided at a level that you really cant impact. So if they "grew more weed" it might help some but it probably wouldnt trickle down as far as one would suspect because the demand and going rate remain the same as a whole.
 
It's basically local produce, so getting it from somewhere else in the off season is expensive. If you live in a state with no medical or recreational cannabis laws, it's always the off season. Compare this to cocaine, which doesn't need to be kept fresh or temperature/climate controlled during it's journey. Cannabis buds are quite sensitive, and this adds to the cost of transport.

Do you live in America? If so, you're simply paying a lot from what I've heard about illegal states recently. I mean, if you live in bumfuck nowhere, 3 states from the nearest medical market, are you surprised it's so expensive? Why? Every other drug is more expensive per gram, concentrated or not. Your cannabis is likely grown and tended by Americans getting paid a semi-livable wage vs the virtual slave labor that processes cocaine/heroin.
 
A lot of it has to do with weed tourism. The fact that a lot of people are paying high prices for lower grade weed on the black market due to prohibition causes an influx of people buying weed in legal states. Combine that with the fact that there are more stoners today than there have ever been(pretty sure at least could be wrong) and it makes for a lucrative time to be on the supply side.

But really it is no different from anything else. Go to any tourist trap and look at the prices of anything- you could probably walk 10 minutes and find things retailing at 50% of the price.

Or walk into a gas station and do a price check of all the items and then go to costco and break down the cost of single items bought in bulk and see if it isn't the same bs.

Like the OP pointed out himself... its a matter of supply and demand. If people weren't willing to pay those prices the stores wouldn't be booming and popping up at every corner. Clearly not everyone finds those prices absolutely unreasonable. Usually when a club is charging a fat premium it is because the weed is pristine, perfectly grown, and hand selected out of the pound to be sold as such. Both growers and quality dispensaries will grade the weed into different batches even of the same crop. Obviously everyone's quality control is different but every time I've paid 60 bucks for an eighth it's been one fat nug of perfect weed.
 
szuko000 said:
Its called economics both large scale and small scale. Your local economy decides what you pay for cannabis. Sure there are statistical out layers where people pay way more others pay way less but as with every commodity the buyers make the price whether they realize it or not.
Click to expand...
exactly.

egzoset, you can whine about conspiracies all you want but the price is what the market will bear.

alasdair
 
While location, legality, and culture have big effects on cannabis economics, I think people often don't really appreciate just how much time, energy, and money it takes to grow. Producing good ganja is a lot more complicated than sticking a seed in the dirt and watching it grow - it takes a lot of supplies and know-how. And after you're done growing the processing (harvesting, drying, curing, trimming) is also very labor intensive.
 
^ Growing has got to be a labor of love or it's just not worth it.

Once the newness of being a grower wears off, it's just like any other job. You really have to put your heart and soul into to it to be worth it.

That's why I look for the best deals and buy legal weed now. It's too time consuming for me to grow, however it's pretty fucking cheap to make A+ stuff if you really want to.
 
For sure. I like to grow my own and it comes out quite a bit cheaper than buying it, even here in Oregon where it is very much a buyer's market, but that's precisely because there's so much work involved. Of course to me it's just one of my hobbies and I enjoy it, but I can see how a lot of the joy would be sucked out of it working as a commercial grower.
 
You don't know the right ppl if ur paying 120 a Q no matter how good it is , sorry to say. But in general I would say weed is priced where it's at because it's one of the very few drugs you can use & use & use & not become addicted . Atleast not in the sense that if u don't have it you will b puking or on the floor writhing in pain lol that & maybe the aspect of it being a lot more socially acceptable . There's a reason dope is so cheap lol
 
effingcustie said:
For sure. I like to grow my own and it comes out quite a bit cheaper than buying it, even here in Oregon where it is very much a buyer's market, but that's precisely because there's so much work involved. Of course to me it's just one of my hobbies and I enjoy it, but I can see how a lot of the joy would be sucked out of it working as a commercial grower.
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That's interesting to hear.

I don't want to pry into your personal life, but if you are growing as a hobby that's pretty much the reason to grow for personal recreational purposes. Keep it small and you won't get tired of it.

It looks like Oregon's stores are just now accepting applications for your stores (currently only small amounts in med stores are happening right now I guess) and it's already legal for you to grow as a recreation right now (and medicinally). That's cool.

Not like I have to tell a grower this, but all good things come with time. There will probably be an initial spike in prices (as soon as measure 91 kicks in and opens the flood gates for rec stores on Jan 4), and then steadily get lower and lower as the market settles down and people pay appropriate prices.

It's going to be a busy but ultimately good year for Oregon next year is my guess. I would bet this time next year Oregon's rec stores will be hot shit. I may have to visit.
 
Why is Dom Perignon and Louis Roederer Cristal champagne so expensive when you can buy a bottle of Korbel for $15?

Quality and craftsmanship.

The better question that I always wondered was, "why do people continue to grow inferior strains?".
I can understand that some growers would want quantity over quality, but you can have both, so why waste time growing b.s.?
 
David Wooderson said:
Why is Dom Perignon and Louis Roederer Cristal champagne so expensive when you can buy a bottle of Korbel for $15?
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It's nice to have a name you can rely on, but a name isn't everything. And if you rely on a name alone you will be fooled.

CLICK HERE & CHECK OUT THIS THREAD

The better question that I always wondered was, "why do people continue to grow inferior strains?".
I can understand that some growers would want quantity over quality, but you can have both, so why waste time growing b.s.?
Click to expand...
Getting warmer, but you failed to mention any of these so called "inferior strains"
 
w01fg4ng said:
It's nice to have a name you can rely on, but a name isn't everything. And if you rely on a name alone you will be fooled.

CLICK HERE & CHECK OUT THIS THREAD


Getting warmer, but you failed to mention any of these so called "inferior strains"
Click to expand...


I really enjoyed that thread, thanks for the link.

I was more talking about class standards, in much the same way I would consider Medicine Man or Tangy as class standards (Top Shelf) for weed.

I don't think the inferior strains I was talking about have names, if they do they do not represent the starting material as they are grown inferior to other pot, they're just generic and nameless to me.

In fact I don't go by names period, my main desired traits are:
1. taste
2. high
3. quality of grow

All things that cannot be decided based on looks alone, so a brand name is almost needed to insure that these things are met, so long as the vendor is honest and reliable.
 
^ The names of the pot stores themselves aren't as important as the names of the strains in my experience.

Product description is almost another "naming" convention that is currently a huge influence for me today when buying pot.

Having test results showing the exact amount of THC, CBD and other cannabinoids is sometimes enough persuasion for me to make the purchase.



Maybe all of the "nameless" strains a lot of the world is illegally trading is contributing to the biggest reason why pot is so expensive; people don't know better.
 
Prices are coming down though. I live in a super illegal state and I still pay almost 40% less than I did around 2010. Also, obviously, buying quantity cuts costs seriously. Most of my stuff is branded from across the country from medical shops at a small markup here. I get the luxury of seeing the before and after price and it's normally 15-20% over the medical shop cost, almost 3000 miles from said shoppes. I'm aware that not everyone has access to reasonably priced pot, but if you and friends chip in togeather you can get a good amount and save some coin. If growing is an option in your area (and is of course legal), that's always a cost effective option as well. Point is, a few crafty pot heads can always keep a decent stash, regardless of cost, as long as we use our heads!
 
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