How Much Should You Pay For Marijuana?

Because the United States doesn’t yet federally recognize marijuana as a safe and legal drug, acquiring it in some places can be a difficult, and even dangerous, task. Besides security, the most popular question asked by people who are looking to purchase weed is how much it should cost. Because the transaction likely needs to be secretly conducted on the “Black Market,” there are no rules or regulations to guarantee that you will get a reasonable price for the product. This means that, unless you go in knowing exactly how much weed generally costs, there is a high chance that you could get ripped off.

Of course, simply knowing the basic price of weed in the United States is not quite enough. You should also be aware of a number of other factors, not the least of which are the local prices of weed. It can be particularly expensive in one state, and simultaneously cost very little in another. For these reasons, you should really do some research before buying weed for the first time. Let’s review the relevant factors that you will need to consider.

Quality

The quality of the weed you are buying should make a huge difference in the cost. Regular or daily consumers can quickly distinguish high-quality weed from low-quality weed. Newbies, however, face a greater risk of paying a premium price for a sub-par product. If you fall are new to buying, make sure you do your pricing homework or ask a knowledgeable and trustworthy veteran. High-quality weed is generally marijuana that includes no stems or seeds (as they are entirely unnecessary), is well manicured, nicely aromatic, and so on.

Download my free marijuana grow guide at this link and learn to grow your own quality marijuana 

Of course, quality doesn’t fall simply into the categories of “good” and “bad.” A lot just depends on what you, as the smoker, prefer in your weed. The more clearly you understand your personal preferences in marijuana, the more likely you are to find a product that fits neatly into your preferences.

Location

We can’t even start discussing international prices in this article because the price variance within the United States alone is so staggering. It can even make a huge difference whether you live in a large city, or a nearby town, as there can be big differences within one state. In this article, we’ll cover the prices on a state-by-state basis, but you should also keep in mind the potential for volatile fluctuations.

In Oregon, for example, good quality weed might sell between $150 and $250 per ounce. Because marijuana is grown there in large quantities and thrives in outdoor setups, higher quality marijuana is easier to find and, therefore, costs less. In other places, the quality might be lower, or the higher quality varieties will cost you more money.

Connections

Just like finding a job, or accomplishing just about anything, the price you are quoted for weed depends on who you know, or who your friends know. You will have a much better (and more reliable) time buying from someone you know well, or are friends with than if you are purchasing weed from a stranger. In the weed industry, it is common to be charged an added fee on top of the actual price of the product. This is called being “shorted” or “taxed,” and it is a risk that can affect anyone buying weed from a stranger. This extra fee is generally between $5 and $10, so that can add up pretty quickly for people who buy weed often.

The time of year

Although it often isn’t thought of this way by people who recreationally smoke marijuana, the harvesting time of marijuana has a big impact on current local prices. The same is true with any food crop, but somehow people have stopped thinking of marijuana as a crop, and instead look at it as a drug, product or simple commodity. The fact of the matter is, however, that the harvesting time plays a big role in the price of marijuana.

The reason for this is simple. When marijuana is grown outdoors, the season dictates when it begins to flower,  as well as when is the best time to harvest. Consequently, anyone growing their plants locally are going to harvest the buds right around the same time, and then try to sell the resulting weed at the same time, too. During these saturated times, it becomes a buyer’s market — since all of the sellers are trying to drop their inventory at the same time. When the supply is greater than the demand, the prices decrease.

Keep in mind, this is only the case if you are living and buying marijuana in an area where it grows well outside. If you reside in an area that imports from faraway places anyway, the prices will likely be unaffected. However, if you live where marijuana grows well outdoors, knowing a bit about the growing season could very well help you get the best deals, and the freshest weed possible.

Legal vs. illegal: which costs more?

Now that weed is legal in some states, and is gaining traction in others, how has this affected the marijuana market? According to some outlooks, legal weed is generally far more expensive than illegal weed. But does that mean that no one will buy it? Or do consumers prefer to take the legal route?

Black market marijuana
On the black market, the average price of one ounce of high-quality marijuana in the United States costs about $350. On the higher end, an ounce of good quality marijuana costs $400 in North Dakota. Similar prices can be found on the black market in Iowa, Louisiana, Wyoming, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

The West Coast, however, is generally the location for the most budget-friendly marijuana. For black market marijuana found in Oregon at $210 per ounce, Washington at $232 per ounce, and California at $245 per ounce.

Legal medical marijuana
Medical marijuana is legal in 23 American states and is generally more expensive than illegal recreational marijuana. Because of the legal aspect and regulations, it is usually higher quality but milder, and is often used for symptom relief or treatment of specific ailments.

Download my free marijuana grow guide at this link and learn to grow your own medical marijuana 

If you get medical marijuana at a dispensary, you will likely find it for roughly $10 per gram. If you buy it somewhere else, it will cost up to $25 per gram. In Seattle, however, medical dispensaries sell medical marijuana for as little as $8 per gram and as much as $15 per gram.

Legal recreational marijuana
Next comes legal recreational marijuana, which is easily the highest priced product on the legal or illegal market. If you reside in Colorado, you can expect the prices of legal recreational marijuana to be about twice as much (per gram) as legal medical marijuana.

Legal recreational marijuana comes out to about $17 per gram, or $482 per ounce. This price hike reflects the limited number of licensed growers there are. In Colorado, just over three percent of growers who applied for licenses actually received them. And even fewer have actually started harvesting. All these conditions combine into a shortage of legal recreational weed and, consequently, prices are high.

These factors already make the prices of marijuana high, but this doesn’t even take into account the sky high taxes that are added to the cost of legal marijuana. For example, in Washington, there is a whopping total of 75{2b4a1a3f3bbc9c5a43771f34362679a3afcf9df24c0d9f4fe2fa80a69d802033} taxed onto legal marijuana. Here are the costs broken down: a 25{2b4a1a3f3bbc9c5a43771f34362679a3afcf9df24c0d9f4fe2fa80a69d802033} wholesale tax, plus a 25{2b4a1a3f3bbc9c5a43771f34362679a3afcf9df24c0d9f4fe2fa80a69d802033} retail tax, and an additional sales tax on top of that!

How have consumers responded?
Just because the prices of marijuana are higher for legal options over black market products, doesn’t mean that everyone will just continue buying the illegal stuff, however. Colorado serves as an effective model for observing the trend in consumer response to the increased prices for legal marijuana. When retail dispensaries opened at the beginning of 2014, the first month of sales saw $3.5 million in tax revenue – this was from both medical and recreational marijuana sales. The lesson to learn here is that, in general, consumers prefer to purchase legal marijuana.

Prices in all 50 states

Unless you are fortunate enough to reside in Washington or Colorado, you are probably curious about the local prices of black market marijuana in your area. Thanks to priceofweed.com we were able to organize it alphabetically and break it down into high-quality, medium-quality and low-quality weed. This will help you to pinpoint reasonable local prices, so that you can quickly find the locations you are most interested in.

The national average price of illegal marijuana is currently around $317 for high-quality weed, and $264 for medium quality weed. We don’t recommend bothering with low-quality weed, as the savings aren’t great enough to make the poor smoke and health risks worth it.

Enjoyed the article? Would you like to start growing your own marijuana? Download my free marijuana grow bible and order some marijuana seeds. All top quality marijuana seeds are available in my marijuana seed shop. We ship seeds to the US, CA and many other countries. For any grow related question please visit the marijuana support page.

Robert

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