I was an avid pot smoker in my college days (long time ago, now) and even over the relatively small span of a 3 year time period I paid everything for a quarter-ounce (~7 grams) from $10 ("ditch weed") to $400 (REALLY good stuff from Cali or Colorado). So I'm not sure what he's talking about with the $10/gram thing being some benchmark that's lasted decades.
I know that's anecdotal evidence, but it's the shared experience of every smoker or ex-smoker I've ever known. And considering the wide variations of produce quality, I think it's odd to suggest that prices are tied to any sort of specific weight.
It's like saying, "Fish always costs $x per pound. (man) Why?" The answer is simply, "No it doesn't."
You really paid $400 for a 1/4oz? I have lived and bought weed all over the country for about a decade, and I have never seen a quarter oz for anything over ~130.. more often ~100-120 for the best weed.
It's too cheap by the gram, or too expensive, depending on the variety. The cheap (low quality) stuff is like $3 by the gram, at most, and the expensive stuff is more like $20 a gram, at most.
There is a huge variation in the price of pot, depending on the type of pot (again, a large variation), where you are, what time of year it is, and who you are buying it from.
What the $10 is referring to are the bags you can buy on street corners in some cities. It is the same with crack and heroin, a standard and simple price, with standard terminology (a bag, a dime, etc.) all to make the street-based transaction easier and less conspicuous.
It has no bearing on the real value of pot, which can vary from a few dollars a gram through to $50+ a gram. What changes is the type and amount of pot you get in a $10 bag.
This is ridiculous ... not that I'm an expert or anything but $20 is the cost of a gram. How is this guy going to claim to have research without trying to buy it himself? This article is completely bunk. Compelling title since people love to discuss the economics of drugs but the premise is way off.
Also as someone who used to know the economics of weed, there are nickel, dime, and dub ($20) bags. This is for people like high school kids and street drug dealers that sell at this level though. I would add that you can probably buy dime bags from the hippies in Golden Gate Park SF, but that feels much more like a crack deal than some legitimate transaction.
You can also grab a quarter (1/4 of an ounce) but it's not going to cost you $25 ... it will cost you more than $100.
I love how this was good enough to be published in the Financial times even though it was wrong. There's a reason that the Freakonomics guys went and lived with the crack dealers: they wanted actual research, not second hand rumors.
Except that you're also wrong. Pricing varies from region to region, and I've heard from a friend that $10 is a gram here, and a quarter is much less than $100. Lookn up online discussions about the price of weed. You'll see a good variety of answers. Quality also matters in pricing, which adds another element to it.
The answer is actually in the question. The questioner is accustomed to paying $10 for one gram. There was a time when the traditional "dime bag" was 1/10th ounce, or nearly three grams.
The $10 price point has "stuck," but the grocery shrink ray strikes all products. Remember when a $1 candy bar was twice today's size?
When I was a kid in the mid-70's a "lid" cost $25. A lid was a pound of weed. Both the quality and cost shot up in the next decade.
Disclaimer: I don't smoke pot, so this is second hand smoke, so to speak. But, there were so many hippies around where I grew up that I literally thought patchouli was what people smelled like when then hadn't bathed in a week.
I'm pretty sure a lid was an ounce. A pound for $25 is too low, during the 70s. That's enough for a High schooler to smoke 1 1-gram joint everyday for 2 school calendar years on just a couple of days worth of lunch money.
You are completely right hapless. A good comparison is a dime bag to a candy bar. What adds confusion is that a dime bag is generally thought of to contain 1 gram these days. But this is not a candy bar and is not marked by weight. You won't find a "gram for a dime" bag that actually contains a gram. Hence why dealers are called choppers. They have to know how much to chop and still make money. Illegal or not, it can still be a slim margin business so these are accepted business practices by both vendors and customers.
I can't imagine it would be terribly hard to find similarly-burning vegetation to dilute the amount of product in a fixed-weight bag at a level undetectable to the average buyer.
You can't just throw some similarly looking vegetation in there without the buyer noticing. You could throw in low-grade hemp, but that's just as hard to grow, so it's of no benefit to the dealer.
One thing you can do is to not dry it. The moisture will add a bit of weight, but probably not more than 5-10% more, depending.
I've read that, in the UK, unscrupulous dealers have been spraying their dried bud with sugared water to add weight. They've also been selling something FAR more dangerous called "grit weed", which has been impregnated with glass dust or microbeads that resemble Cannabis terpines or "crystals" and also add considerable weight, but is basically fiberglass when inhaled.
This is sort of built into the quality scaling tho. Properly dried (not too dry, not too wet) fetches a higher price than what the difference in weight for lower quality offers.
"You could throw in low-grade hemp, but that's just as hard to grow, so it's of no benefit to the dealer."
I am not sure about that. Shouldn't low-grade hemp be cheaper in areas where it can be grown legally? After all, the risk of losing a harvest to law enforcement is lower.
I remember when a candy bar was 1/2 today's size. Everywhere you go it's "supersized this" and "supersized that". Even snickers bars are 2" longer, 1/2" thicker, and 1/2" wider than they used to be.
Perhaps, I haven't purchased one since I stopped doing packaged foods, but I no longer notice the standard sized candy bars, the liquor store counters and grocery store check-out aisles seem to be filled only with the "king size" versions.
I actually noticed the opposite. A few days ago I had a craving for a snickers bar. I haven't had one in years. So I popped into my local 7-11 and I noticed that the candy bars all looked...smaller... than when I was a kid. There was no king size to be found. Anecdotal? Sure, but it does support what the poster was claiming.
Your point of reference has changed. My father was the biggest man in the world when I was 5 years old, now I feel like I could hollow out a leg and hide him in it.
Currently a gram of medical grade marijuana (or any 'good quality' pot) is around $20.
The author says that a gram costs, and always has costed, $10. This can certainly be true today if he's buying relatively low quality marijuana. If he's been smoking for many decades, he'd notice the quality of pot has gone up significantly, but so has the price. The kind of stuff my generation's parents smoked in the 70s is now what people are selling for $10 a gram, and apparently what the author is still buying.
Yes, and a point that isn't mentioned in the article is that the price of weed might be dropping at roughly the same rate the American dollar is being inflated. So what we could be looking at is a coincidental equilibrium. As more US states decriminalize marijuana the costs (risk and otherwise) of production and distribution decrease. I'm in Denver, CO and just the other day walked past a small police station with a cannabis dispensary right next to it.
I just visited Colorado and the situation there is SO DIFFERENT than 10 years ago, or the standard in the rest of the US... it's nuts. You drive down a street in Denver, Colorado City (Springs), or Fort Collins and it's Bud Med, Pure Health, Green Med, etc. one after another.
The laws are clearly in flux now. It's in this crazy gray region, where sure, some people that have cancer, MS and AIDS are in MUCH BETTER positions where they don't have to deal with black market BS outside of their comfort zone to get medication that makes them feel so much better, but on the other hand, people who clearly want cannabis just for recreational use are getting prescriptions to get high. Which I don't see anything wrong with, other than the fact that the law should just face reality and acknowledge that some people want to spend their afternoon hikes and TV time high on weed and not try to control their lives.
This is progress, but it's not there yet. Clearly the next step is to stop making casual smokers pretend they are in severe pain' or 'uncurable depression' to get their weed. It's not any more harmful than beer, and even if it was more harmful than gin, it's not any of the government's business to tell people how they spend their mind power.
I believe you misunderstand what "decriminalization" is. Marijuana being "decriminalized" simply means it is not a felony to possess it in amounts intended for private use. This is the case in a number of states including Ohio where I grew up. In Ohio they'd joke about it being a "50$ fine"... I don't know if that's the actual fine but there is no fail time and simply some fine for marijuana possession in small quantities.
Also, in many of these states you'll find that enforcement of marijuana laws are fairly lax in general. A friend was pulled over with marijuana in their car and the judge changed the charge to "public disturbance" or some such so that they wouldn't lose their student loan eligibility and other things.
Making marijuana available for medical purposes is basically decriminalization. I drew the distinction as I've encountered people who think that states are legalizing it which is an entirely different thing.
Practically speaking decriminalization is making pot available to a much wider audience at a lower cost as (at least in Denver) there's no practical limit to how much people can buy. One person with a medical marijuana card can (and does) supply a fair number of people without.
The increase in potency strongly correlates with the increase in inflation.
He is probably holding quality as a fixed constant, so the real price goes down as the products relative inferiority increases, and the increase in nominal price due to inflation cancels it out.
Good question. The answer to that should be related to the answer to why things change in price.
Reasons for a smaller dollar amount: inflation, cheaper production, too few buyers, too many sellers (thus more competition)
Reasons for a bigger dollar amount: more expensive production, too many buyers, too few sellers (thus less competition)
I'm no economist but I suppose the reason should be a combination of the above. However, my intuition would expect weed gets cheaper over the years due to inflation and competition. So there is probably another reason: It might have to do with weed culture itself, which is highly ritualistic I think. The ritual (of consumption) probably doesn't change and the price doesn't change either.
Actually, inflation would raise prices. Given the figures cited in the article, $10 in 1980 should give something like $20-25 now based on the US CPI. Thats precisely why it's interesting - the real (vs nominal) price has actually fallen since 1980.
And then you're right, basic supply and demand theory would suggest that supply growth has outpaced demand growth over the same period (and by a rate about the same as the inflation rate to keep nominal prices constant). But why? loosening regulation/enforcement is mostly on the demand side, I would say. It's probably getting easier to grow higher quality pot (more information readily accessible, better equipment, mobility, economies of scale, etc). The overall market likely behaves perfectly competitively (its a commodity, no single dealer could charge more per unit of 'high' without losing business). So, perfect competition with supply growth = lower real prices.
I'd grant that, while not always $10, the price of a gram (usually the smallest unit sold, other than guys selling individual joints here and there) - the reason you don't see a lot of price fluctuation is becuase this is a bottom-end price. The markup is already huge - there is lots of market fluctuation for the people buying from growers and buying quarter-pounds and whatnot, depending on quality, quantity, market, etc..... but at some point, it's weed man. It's not worth someone's time to do a transaction for less than $10 (or similar) - even if they're buying at a much lower price.
Based on what I see in the local paper, in the medical marijuana dispensaries here in Boulder, regular prices range from around $12 to $16 per gram for high grade medical marijuana. There are a variety of specials that bring it down to around $10, but that price seems low as a regular price. I suspect price varies a fair amount by location. I have heard in CA the prices are closer to $20 per gram in the dispensaries there.
Interestingly enough, the price at the dispensaries seems to be about what street prices were before the medical marijuana dispensaries became so prevalent, maybe even a tad lower.
IANAPothead, though I do pick up once or twice a year for concerts and to be a good host.
By far the mode price I've encountered for 1/8 oz (3.5g) is $25; $30 if something very special (though this is in Southern Ontario and British Columbia, and I've apparently been spoiled for quality). Seeing this hold so exactly when I moved from Toronto to Vancouver was my delightful first real encounter with communication-without-intent through large-scale dynamic systems.
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Epilogue: somehow, I keep ending up being very good friends with small-time drug dealers, and Apple employees.
Yeah that was my first thought - supply has kept up with demand enough to offset inflation.
Tobacco, coffee, gold are better currencies alternatives to weed due to their stable legality. Weed's stable demand in relatively illegal times may change drastically if it becomes completely legal. But if that happens, it may be more stable a currency than tobacco since most people on it feel that it does no harm and therefore don't feel incentivized to quit.
Well, that struck me as a pretty pompous answer from the economics dude. If he could have been bothered, he could have found official price stats for various drugs and then written something factual.
Glad to see comments being posted where nobody has any true expertise. Proof: The conversation should have turned to "grade" from "quantity" and hasn't.
Good on all of you. Don't rearrange your own 1's and 0's.
I'm no expert either, thankfully. Although the medical benefits do seem to be real (i.e. pain reduction, appetite stimulation, etc.)
I was curious enough about this to ask a pothead friend about this, his statement is that buying in such small quantities he expects to pay $20-$25 per gram for "high grade" plant material at the pot stores^W^Wmedical marijuana dispensaries in SF. "$10 is what suburban tourists pay for a gram of twigs, seeds, and brown mexiweed on haight street". was his direct quote.
He's correct, this "$10 a gram" question doesn't make much sense. Fortunately, I've studied this topic and can share some knowledge.
There are basically two qualities of marijuana on the market in the US: low grade Mexican imports, and high grade domestic/canadian. You could add a third, a 'midgrade', which would be really good mexican or low grade canadian (mass imported BC bud, aka 'beesters'). (Interestingly, in the UK and Europe, the Mexican equivalent is 'African').
The Mexican stuff sells for $200-$1200 a lb, depending on your proximity to the border. For instance, it might be $250 a lb in Las Cruces, NM, $500 in Albuquerque, and $600 in Denver. This equates to a price of $25-80 an ounce retail varying similarly by location. It is not very fresh, may be chemically adulterated (splashed with gasoline to hide the smell, for instance), is compressed into bricks. Your average teenager or blue collar worker smokes this. . Potency by weight is probably 2-6% active cannabinoids. Smell ranges from hay-like, to mildy sweet and herbal, to old and musty. It's the Budweiser of pot.
The other type is the high grade, aka 'kind bud', 'headdies', 'nugs', or so on. This is typically produced in hydroponic farms in the US, from seeds of Californian or Dutch varieties that have been the result of intensive breeding for quality. As such, it is much more fresh and potent. Sometimes the Canadian material is compressed a bit, but never into 'bricks' like the Mexican. Potency by weight is probably 5-25% active cannabinoids. This is preferred by connoisseur smokers, upscale customers, people concerned about their health and medical patients. That's the type you'll find at the medical dispensaries in California or Colorado, for instance - locally grown, high quality. Smell is fresh and herbal, showing a wide range of floral scents typical to the plant. A beer comparison would be a tasty craft brew from a brew pub or a regional microbrew. I guess the Canadian stuff would be the equivalent of Sam Adams. The prices range from $250 to $450 an ounce, showing little regional variation. My friend has a license to produce for dispensaries in Colorado, and he said the prices there are $175 to $350 an ounce, similar to the old prices on the black market. The price for this type is usually, as noted, $20-25 a gram. More typical is a 1/8 ounce (3.5 g) for $50-60, and a quarter ounce for $80-100. So, it actually works out to about $14 a gram.
And, there HAS been inflation in the price of this in the past 20 years, invalidating this article's viewpoint, but it goes in spurts. The price for a quarter ounce of this higher quality type was about $60-80 in the early 90s, and then became $80-100 in the later half of the decade. It's stayed remarkably stable at that price, and $350-400 an ounce, since then.
Kine is a hawaiian words that translates to "the one". It is used to express like or show praise towards something or someone. The term has been popularized in the continental United States in reference to potent Cannabis.
Seems reasonable. I don't think the neo-hippies I heard this from 5-15 years ago were thinking anything about Hawaii, though. They thought 'kind bud' or 'the kind' and either didn't think about it, or assumed that meant something that was 'nice' to them.
Sounds good to me. By the time I first heard this in person, people were saying 'kind bud' most definitely, though - so it has a place the vernacular in that form. Slang is a funny thing.
I was an avid pot smoker in my college days (long time ago, now) and even over the relatively small span of a 3 year time period I paid everything for a quarter-ounce (~7 grams) from $10 ("ditch weed") to $400 (REALLY good stuff from Cali or Colorado). So I'm not sure what he's talking about with the $10/gram thing being some benchmark that's lasted decades.
I know that's anecdotal evidence, but it's the shared experience of every smoker or ex-smoker I've ever known. And considering the wide variations of produce quality, I think it's odd to suggest that prices are tied to any sort of specific weight.
It's like saying, "Fish always costs $x per pound. (man) Why?" The answer is simply, "No it doesn't."