Legal marijuana is expensive in Washington State. This last week, prices reached as high as $30 per gram. That works out to $840 per ounce. I have never heard of someone getting $840 per ounce, no matter how good it is. But, I guess if people are willing to pay that much, let the invisible hand of economics carry on. Still, I think the legal recreational marijuana industry needs to scale back prices. If store prices are multiple times more than street prices, it could come back to haunt the industry.
There’s a lot of blame being thrown around in Washington State over the high prices. Per Koin:
The store’s owners blame the price shift on growers and processors, who they say are taking advantage of low supply and high demand.
“The growers that got us initially, they’re the ones that we’re not gonna plan on dealing with,” said Hamide.
Now, Hamide and five other stores are teaming up to from a retail association that will give them some clout at the bargaining table with growers.
I think that as more stores open, and more growers and processors get licensed to operate, prices will come down. Right now there is simply too much demand and not enough supply. But it’s still disappointing to see people taking advantage of the situation. It’s also sad to see people willing to pay such high price tags. But, if that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to do. If Washington allowed home cultivation like they do in Colorado, and will in Oregon, it would help fix this problem as well.
