Mercury

Why? Why grow it when you could buy it? Do you do that with anything else?

Herb Greene

i read a study recently, though i can't remember where for the life of me. anyway, the study concluded that from a large-scale indoor grow, high quality medicinal grade marijuana would cost about $150 per pound to produce.

let's call that $10 per ounce. that is just the production cost... in california's legalization proposals it looks like the tax would be about $50 per ounce. so you're looking at $60 per ounce before any of the middlemen, wholesalers, retailers get involved. with each level marking it up 100% - grower, distributor, retailer - you end up with the retail price being $140 per ounce.

grower's cost = $10 per ounce
grower sells to distributor at 100% markup = $20 per ounce
distributor sells to retailer at 100% markup = $40 per ounce
retailer sells to you & me at 100% markup = $80 per ounce plus $60 tax = $140 per ounce

you gotta think there are going to be other layers of taxation or distribution levels with people wanting a cut. in short, i'm not sure how much cheaper it will be than it is right now. the good news is that when that time comes if you don't like the pricing, you can grow your own without any fear of legal issues.

Rubix

please, post something useful

tallooly

virginia... it's about $1300 - 1500 lb for mid.

Geeno

due to the nature of this economy, where people could produce things - but don't, it would probably not me much different than it is now - until some megaheady corporation came in and dominated all the individual growers.

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stateofkane

A mega corporation would take over on day 1. Weed would be genetically modified and packaged in cans and joints like packs of cigs. It would have no stems/seeds and be broken up, just like.... the tobacco u get in cans. Their would also be organic...

$10/ounce might be an understatement. It's easier to grow than tobacco, and they would have to compete with individual growers.

The only thing is the xian crowd might bring the price up a little. Alcohol would be a lot cheaper if not for the taxes (the ones included already, not the sales tax). It's hard to say actually...

OldMan&TheWeed

I'd like to believe we're having this conversation because we're close to legalization. At least here in Cali it'll be on November's ballot.

In a world where bud is legal, I'm going to make a few assumptions:

• It can be grown out doors, meaning it will cost far less than $10 per pound to produce.
• The legal market will be regulated and taxed--heavily taxed.
• The tax will mean that the black market will not go away.

I'd venture to guess that legal weed will go for around $50.00 - $100.00 per ounce, while the black market will go for half of that.

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OldMan&TheWeed

I had a heated discussion with my mother during Christmas over legalizing marijuana, not over if it SHOULD be legalized (we both agree it should) but how much it will cost.

She argued that it was analogous to booze and beer, and that it just wasn't worth the trouble to make your own, even though it would be possible. Sure SOME people would plant a row in their gardens along side the corn and tomatoes, but most folks would just go to the store. Any smoker could grow their own tobacco now, save themselves a fortune on cigarettes, and sell the excess to their friends, but who does? Nobody.

I argued that Mary Jane was in it's own category. It is MUCH easier to grow than tobacco (I know, having worked on a tobacco farm as a kid), and ounce-per-ounce even when legal it would be many more times more profitable than tobacco. Add to that the fact that people are accustomed to it being a black market commodity.

Assuming a high rate of taxation and people being allowed to grow for their own "personal use," I don't see the black market going away.

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stateofkane

Oh yeah, if it was legal I would still want to deal with someone else's schedule, bullshit, take the risk of getting ripped off, not knowing the source of their bud. Why would I want to go to the store and spend less than 2 minutes getting a predictable quality product when I could spend all day chasing some schmuck who has a questionable product? Because I'm a douche that wants to save money. It would be no more than $20/ounce for ultra-premium bud, and time is money.

Maybe a "black market" for weed would be equivalent of flea market for vegetables.

OldMan&TheWeed

Or moonshine.

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

the-who?

I was in Amsterdam over the summer. Checked out over 10 shops, and the cheapest weed was 8 euros a gram. In most of the places they called the lowest priced stuff white widow. Most of the shit they were bragging about and saying we should get was in the 12-15 euro range, but they had "Cannabis Cup" strains that went up to 60 euros a gram, and other strains for around 20-30.
You could also get prerolled gram joints for like 4 euro, but they load them with shake and stems.

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Bearsy

I see what you're saying, but all you would need to do is make a solid contact with a friend/colleague who grows their own, because there will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people growing pot.

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Geeno

yeah sounds like SoK has never had a good growin friend

Usually they just give me buds and tell me to pay when its convenient

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stateofkane

I had one who grew in '08 and last year, then got raided last october. It was the best stuff I ever smoked hands down. I would stay high for 3 hours.

I have had bad luck with hookups. Either by getting shorted or ppl that aren't very into it. Anyways this dude should have submitted pics to high times. I think it was purple kush...

SmokeaJoint

If weed is legalized, the gov is gonna regulate potency, and the shit you buy at the store will be old and dry by the time you buy it. Just like cigs. Also, it will be mids quality or worse and you can bet that the big businesses will introduce filler (aka cutting their weed). I bet the black market will have better quality at a similar price.

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stateofkane

They wouldn't regulate potency. You can buy bacardi 151. You can buy organic tobacco w/o fillers (american spirit) in cans. That is their slogan...

And if they regulated potency it would be better than mid grade. Probably.

Waves

dispensaries are not legal weed. if weed were decriminalized and sold like cigarettes i imagine the price would be about the same for both. there would be an initial price war as producers found the best cost/development ratio and it would settle into a flat rate after a short period of time. like sure it might start at 60 bucks an eight, but as soon as joe blow finds out he can vastly undercut the competition and rake in more consumers the price will drop. cannabis and tobacco are pretty similar, i imagine alot of the companies currently growing tobacco would start growing cannabis.

in short it would be completely awesome for everyone, especially our country if we taxed the shit out of it. we would make a good example to the rest of the world, i dare say it would make america happier and wiser in general. for instance we might see that we are spending most of our money not on education or homelessness or shit like that, we're spending it to blow up brown people in foreign lands so we can keep our cheap gas prices.
You can bet your ass though that there would still be different levels of product offering different levels of service and quality, same as with alcohol and tobacco. you get what you pay for, and producing mass quantities of cheap weed for mass sale is much different than taking your time and growing top quality herb with care. its not like this is communism and only the government and big business can grow and sell the product. any joe could go into business and make a shit ton of money growing amazing weed. it would be a huge industry.

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SmokeaJoint

man waves, I hope its like you say. I mean, if theres no good quality weed on the market, I will have my own but if they git fire for sale regularly, I may have to go to the store alot.

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Some restrictions may apply. Void where prohibited