I find your article HIGHLY inacurate....

as a cardholding med mj user in CA. for the last 9 years, i have had the pleasure of getting to see many cannabis clubs..... you might find $60 eighths but most are $40 OR LESS (as low as $10 an eighth). I would assume an acurate average would be closer to $30 an eighth!

also Where in the world? can you find $5 or $10 eighths on the street?????
Please let me know cuz i will head there imediately......and even if you could find that price, it's probably dirt weed.
where i come from the street cost just as much as the clubs but on the street you dont have to go to another city to get it!

Not sure where you are paying 5-10 dollars for a bag of nice herb but let me know. I do agree that the medical marijuana act and subsequent federal memorandum that stayed the federal prosecutorial powers should have lowered retail costs for dispensaries. However, every single dispensary must pay for it's staff(including security), building(rent), electricity, permits, taxes(where applicable), and any retail device used in display(cases, lights to examine products, shelves, store room, jars, bags). It's always been a better idea to do it yourself, but some folks don't have that convenience or time and a retail price(obviously inflated) is the most convenient and effective way to distribute a still illegal(under federal law) product. I would say an average size grow operation(3 1000 watt lamps flowering), after recouping grow equipment expenditures, would produce marijuana for somewhere around $50 or less an oz. It is a time intensive process to produce high grade marijuana, so obviously that time needs to be factored into the equation. Like I said before, where are you getting headies for 5-10 dollars a slice?

Where did this twit get these prices? I can't find moldy brown for less than 20! Do your homework next time. U just don't think its right that people make ANY money on medical mj. Fresh Greenbud goes for no less than 30 an eighth on the street and that's just the stuff that people grow illegally.
$10 an eighth... Who are u tryin to fool jackass?

Having direct experience in the Sea of Green method of production, I can say that you're estimate of cost/labor/materials=$5-$10/3.5g "retail" is absurd. Even a large indoor operation(500-1000)plants cannot be sustained by those street prices. Not by a looooong shot. Those prices reflect 1970 high grade sinsemilla. $5-10/28g for low grade dirty weed. Id like to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you didnt just pull those street values out of you rear end. Nope sorry, you made that up.

A friend of a friend of mine decided to figure it out himself... using four 600 watt HPS lights covering 14 plants grown in organic soil pots, he ended up with 2.5 pounds of very good quality smoke after 100 days, with the ability to replicate this 3.5 times per year. Adding up the costs for a single harvest, not including the initial purchase of lighting equipment, which would include electricity used (14 hours per day average at 15 cents per kilowatt hour), water used, cost of pots (resusable), potting mix, and fertilizer... his total cost for 2.5 pounds was $654.00.

Or $261.60 per pound. Or $16.35 per ounce, cost. If he were to sell at a wholesale of $4400.00 per pound, his gross is $11,000.00. If he were to sell retail at $400.00 per ounce, his gross is $16,000.00. Minus $654.00 equals a nice net either way. The initial purchase price for the lighting equipment is between $1200 and $1500.00 and can be used for 10 to 15 years with only bulbs to replace every 2 years.

This friend of a friend wasn't a novice grower, but doesn't consider himself a "professional" by any stretch of the imagination. So at a middle of the road cost of $16.35 per ounce, the authors gripe seems to be justified, especially when viewed in the true sense of "compassion". Obviously, medical marijuana isn't covered by prescription coverage or health care plans, so I personally think a more than fair price that shows compassion, taking into account the minimal cost to grow (and adding administrative and overhead costs), would be in the $100.00 to $150.00 an ounce range.

I don't know where you're from, but you can't get high quality cannabis (the only safe kind in my opinion, and the only kind that is useful medically) for $5-10 on the streets. Maybe you can get nasty, Mexican garbage pot for that price. On the streets, people charge $50 an eighth on the cheap side, $70 on the higher side. I don't know if these dispensaries are making a huge profit or are forced to sell at $60 just to stay afloat. I do agree that a legit price for a 1/8th of medical pot is probably somewhere around $30, but that would be with no profit whatsoever.

I wanted to add to my above post and just say that I think $25-30 per eighth is a fair price, but they would still be able to make a profit off of that.

In response to the person who said that his grower friend can only repeat the process 3.5 times per year, this is not true. Cannabis growers use a technique called "cloning" which shaves off a huge amount of time and allows them to generally harvest once per month or once every 2 weeks if they have a perpetual grow going which I'm sure that all medical dispensaries or their suppliers do. With a perpetual grow, dispensaries suppliers can harvest anywhere from 1-4lbs spending less than $500 in most cases or $1000 with higher-quality, professional equipment.

If they were truly doing it out of compassion and nothing else (which I'm not sure is possible, given that they have to stay afloat monetary wise) they could practically give the stuff away without much trouble.

"On to the future of production. As more compassion centers b(l)oom, and demand increases exponentially, the small growers will be absorbed by ever larger industrial facilities. Those who are >1 acre outdoor, >2400 sq feet in doors, and of course the "back bedroom" growers will gradually fade. This inevitable expansion will furthur drive the OTC Price down, and one day we may see the $3.50/g head stash. Some folks will continue to grow their own as regulations are relaxed, though most will pay OTC. If I were a budding entrepeneur, I may look into the future of refining(hash/oils) or branding strains."

> meant to be

Yes, its ALL ABOUT GREED. I could understand if they charged that when the club was first starting up, but for gods sake, what do they think patients are, MADE OF MONEY? I quit the whole club scene, because I can get it much cheaper from friends. Besides, my friends usually let me try the weed first, but the clubs have sold me weed in the past that was junk! It looked good, but I actually got pissed once and went back to the club, and demanded a trade in or refund. They refused. So I left the crap behind. I told them too, that I have a lot of experience with cannabis, and I know the good from the bad. Anyways, ROCK ON to who wrote this article, except for the part about 10 dollar eighths, har har har! : )

All I can add to this is that here in Fresno, CA, I can easily find Mexican brown weed for about $130 a quarter pound on the streets. So that averages out to what... about $8.13 or so per eighth.

Granted, it is dirt weed that can never compare to good quality medical cannabis, but consider this...

There's a patient that can only afford to spend about $100 - $150 per month on medicine. This patient knows that without at least a daily dose their medicine they will be violently ill and vomiting.

Now that patient considers whether they should buy the Q.P. of brown, which they know will at least baseline keep them from throwing up and will last all month, or do they buy a quarter ounce or so of medical grade cannabis that will be nicer to smoke but will only last maybe a week (leaving them to puke for three weeks)?

I'm sure there are a lot of medical marijuana patients out there who face this very dilemma every month.

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Tommy Hawkins Jr.
Americans for Safe Access Fresno Chapter Community Liaison
www.ASAFresno.org

The ultimate wisdom is knowing that you know nothing. - Socrates

I haven't specifically looked into this, but I imagine that many of the dispensaries offer sliding scale arrangements, using the higher amounts paid by those who can afford it to subsidize others who can't.

David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org