4 ms·

Let’s imagine there was no marijuana tax. You’d still have this: abusing pesticides + free land - potency tests - health tests = lower cost.

• asdff 7y ago
  Forget about overhead because this is a cheap product to produce, about as cheap as growing tomatoes. The illegal market doesn't really respond with lower cost, but higher profit. Good weed at a steep steep discount (ie gray market) is going to be $150. That's not because of overhead, but market price. Overhead is very low. You can grow six plants yourself in CA legally outside all year round in socal. A single good harvest of six autoflowering plants will yield you 6-24oz in 3-4 months for probably $100 on your end if you didn't have any supplies, maybe another $50 for good seeds. So you yourself can grow pot for ~$6-25$ an ounce. Imagine what the wholesale price can fall down to if you take advantage of economies of scale. But it doesn't, because in the legal market taxation and licensing add huge costs to what otherwise should be the business of selling tomatoes, and the illegal market rides the profit off of the established market rate that customers are used to paying.