Marijuana Prices & Costs and the Black Market

I've been a speaker for LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) now called Law Enforcement Action Partnership for YEARS???

I told many people at Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary clubs over the years that if we legalized marijuana the prices would drop dramatically and the bad guys would go away.

A study by H. Guyford Stever a Professor of Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College & Qatar Campus and the RAND Drug Policy Research Center called the Estimated Cost of Production for Legalized Cannabis.

Marijuana Indoor Grow Costs
The study says it costs $225 per pound to grow marijuana indoors. $75 per pound for electricity and the remaining $150 per pound for other factors. Those costs work out to be quite consistent with those described in a Dutch case study described by Cervantes (2006, p.148). The Cervantes study goes on to say cost could be $116 per pound as equipment has been paid for. The study goes on to says the Outdoor Costs to Grow Marijuana is around $8.00 per pound.

I was very disappointed when in many states the non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries continued to charge black market prices for medical marijuana, around $8,000 per pound. In Arizona to add insult to injury it cost the disabled and patients with medical conditions requiring medical marijuana to pay a physician $150 for a certification good for one year. Then pay the state $150 for the right to pay $8,000 a pound for your medicine.

I did like the fact that Mexican marijuana prices have dropped. In 2016 a story on PRI.org "Loosened US pot laws have sent Mexican weed prices plunging". They reported that "marijuana has gone from selling for about $100 per kilo to about $30 a kilo and that's a change that's been happening over the last two or three years".

The current black market can undercut the legal taxed marijuana prices for many years to come as long as $8.00 a pound marijuana sells for $8,000 a pound. We need to stop charging patients $300 a year for the right to use and purchase the medicine they need...


LINK Estimated Cost of Production for Legalized Cannabis