What Drives Medical Marijuana Prices In California?

When you take the time to look at what’s really going on with the suppliers of medical marijuana these days it’s no wonder that there is so much political opposition to medical marijuana dispensaries. What is really going on in the medical marijuana supply scene? GREED. When the people passed Proposition 215, they did so believing that the spirit of the law they were voting for would be followed, and it would mean that seriously ill people would be able to obtain and use a natural medicine to relieve their suffering. They never intended to give rise to huge profit machines that only benefit those with the ability to grow and distribute medical marijuana. As we look around the State of California, though, we begin to see that the spirit of the law that people so readily supported to help the suffering is falling by the wayside to make room for PROFIT. Proposition 215 was written to allow people with the ability to grow medical marijuana to grow their own supply of medicine without fear of arrest. The law also intends to allow those persons to grow additional medicinal marijuana for others that are not able to grow it for themselves. The growers are supposed to provide the medical marijuana to those individuals at a price which allows them to recover their operating expenses (and maybe even make a small profit), but it was never intended to give rise to operations where the growers and distributers of the medical marijuana charge overinflated prices to those individuals who can least afford it. All anyone has to do is look at the prices that are being charged by the medical marijuana growers and distributers in dispensaries all over California. Medical marijuana is averaging $60 for an eighth of an ounce, and there is no way that such prices can be justified without factoring in huge profit margins. It is so often said that the medical marijuana suppliers of today are simply charging what they have to in order to keep afloat. What doesn't add up is that you can buy marijuana almost anywhere on the streets for around $5 - $10 per eighth ounce while supposedly legitimate providers are charging around $60 for the same amount. Medical marijuana providers use the excuse that they have a lot of expenses like lighting, utilities, security, etc., and so they have to charge that much to cover their costs of operations. I ask you though… Who actually has the greater operating expenses; those who grow legally or those who grow illegally? Medical marijuana providers no longer have to hide in the shadows to produce their product; they can grow it freely and they can organize in public storefronts and can advertise openly if they so choose. Shouldn't their operating expenses be quite a bit lower than those for the illegal growers who still have to hide their operations and activities in order to avoid arrest and prosecution, and that loose so much of their crops every year to police raids? That brings us to wonder again why legitimate medical marijuana providers are charging six times or more what illegal growers are. There is one answer that keeps rearing its ugly head; GREED.