4 ms·

I spent about 4 years actively growing weed before it was "legal." in San Francisco. Because mine was indoor/soil/organic and didn't require driving up to Ukia

I spent about 4 years actively growing weed before it was "legal." in San Francisco. Because mine was indoor/soil/organic and didn't require driving up to Ukiah or waiting for the outdoor harvests, I got the same premium rates for it that are noted in the article. As soon as I realized that weed was eventually going legal, I stopped entirely because I could see the writing on the wall. It was becoming commoditized to the point where it was impossible to compete. Too much money was being thrown at it. Articles like this are zero surprise.

a2tech 4y ago
In Michigan now that its legal the prices have plummeted. I just saw a place advertising $100 for 2 full ounces for new recreation customers. Thats an insane deal. I'm sure its not the best stuff but its a shocking amount.
- pixl97 4y ago
  I mean $100 for 2 ounces of the marijuana plant in particular isn't cheap at all. There are some 'mild' complications in growing it, but in theory it should end up more like a bulk farming product where we talk about dollars per pound on the retail side, and dollars per ton on the wholesale side.
  - nickthegreek 4y ago
    Wild to not consider that cheap! In Ohio, with a med card, you will pay over $300 for 1.
    - asdff 4y ago
      There's a reason why there are dispensaries for ohioans set up just across the michigan border.
      - nickthegreek 4y ago
        I believe the acceptable mold level in Michigan is 10x that of Ohio. Price is only one component, many people like a tightly regulated medical market to ensure safety.
        asdff 4y ago
        If it were at a sufficient level for people to start getting sick you'd expect to see an increase in people with related issues, but you don't when you seek out news on this factoid, just a statement on the level being higher than in another place. Most products you consume will have at least some mold on them.
        aliqot 4y ago
        Or just turn it into an extraction, problem solved. Not many spores can survive a solvent wash, I don't know of any research that says they do.
        asdff 4y ago
        Their metabolites might be left behind.
        kortilla 4y ago
        Or the tight regulation produces higher prices without any particular improvement to the product (e.g. taxi medallions). “tightly regulated” != “better”
    - tfehring 4y ago
      It's cheap for weed, but expensive for a relatively high-volume part of a relatively easy-to-grow plant. Imagine seeing an $800/pound price tag in the produce section of your grocery store.
  - jjulius 4y ago
    >I mean $100 for 2 ounces of the marijuana plant in particular isn't cheap at all. Where are prices so low that $100 for 2 ounces "isn't cheap at all"?
    - dieselgate 4y ago
      It’s cheap but not that cheap depending on quality. “Cheap quality” deals around WA and OR can be as low as $35/oz
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - ChoGGi 4y ago
      Canada ;)
  - nibbleshifter 4y ago
    Where I live 2 ounces would be around 750-900$ (converted roughly to usd). Its also illegal.
- LBJsPNS 4y ago
  I can buy ounces all day in Portland for $20. Is it Jesus incarnate? Nope. Is it perfectly good sinsemilla that gets ya high? Yup.
  - encryptluks2 4y ago
    Where? I live in Portland and would love to try a $20 ounce.
    - jjulius 4y ago
      Seconded. I'm not gonna argue that it's not cheap here, but $20 for an ounce is way too low to be true. Unless, of course, it's far worse than "Jesus incarnate".
      - eigen 4y ago
        looking at weedmaps, there are a few places with 1 oz in the $20s. $25 FA Ranch Mangolicious at Electric Lettuce [1] $28 Blueberry Muffin at Floyd's Fine Cannabis [2] if you're willing to travel, $20.83 Pineapple Upsidedown Cake at THClear [3] [1] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/electric-lettuce-northeast-dispensary/menu/fa-ranch-mangolicious https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/electric-lettuce-northeast... [2] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/floyd-s-fine-cannabis-on-whitaker-2/menu/blueberry-muffin-by-uncle-john-s-farm https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/floyd-s-fine-cannabis-on-w... [3] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/thclear-lebanon/menu/park-union-preground-28g-sativa-pineapple-upsidedown-cake https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/thclear-lebanon/menu/park-...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- HDThoreaun 4y ago
  In Illinois the opposite has happened. Been legal for going on 3 years now and an mid quality ounce goes for $300-400 minimum. 1 gram carts retail for $60 plus taxes bringing it to an easy 80. I just drive to Michigan now since the prices there are 4x lower, but the black market is doing quite well here since the number of smokers has increased and prices are half for similar quality flower.
hotpotamus 4y ago
I remember reading something years back that applying modern large scale ag technology to cannabis was never a technical hurdle, merely a legal one, and how much cheaper it would be once the well-capitalized giants got ahold of it and came to pretty much the same conclusion. It did make for a neat trip through Colorado in 2017 when it was still pretty novel though.
- asdff 4y ago
  It actually is a technical hurdle because not a lot of academic research is being done on it for commercial growers to use. You see some papers out there that cover things like yield per light spectrum or what soil ammendments do for terpene content, but they all come out of Canada and specifically McGill. It's like U.S. researchers are blackballed by their institutions or maybe their grant funding agencies. As such, techniques like plant tissue culture that are commonly done with other crops and expensive ornamentals in the U.S. are rarely done with cannabis because growers that do these techniques are often tight lipped about things such as the most ideal media composition or really anything else related to methodology. Meanwhile with crops such as corn, you have entire land grant universities planting test crops as we speak and biology departments dedicated to maize genetics, and thats true for almost every other large commercial crop. Billions are spent on research by the federal and state governments. Agriculture takes advantage of all of this research and development when producing commercial crops, but none of this investment is being made for cannabis and when it is done by these private companies they are not proliferating their findings.
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    Corn feeds millions of people and animals. Pot? It doesn’t feed anyone. So I can understand the funding disparity.
    - asdff 4y ago
      It's not so much as a disparity as the funding is simply nonexistent. Pot doesn't feed anyone of course, but its legitimate medicine.
asdff 4y ago
I'm not sure what your operation was but I think there is still a market for your crop. There's plenty of weed in the dispensary, yes, but its taxed sometimes 30%. You get what you think is a cheap oz of weed but its in a sealed bag, and when you open it up it does the job sure according to THC % but its all that shake and larf and ugly stuff that comes from the trim bag and rock hard cure style of prep commercial growers do. There's a reason why the grey market remains so huge.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- standardUser 4y ago
  I've had the exact opposite experience with recreational stores. A wide selection of accurately labelled and high quality products, instead of just a bag of weed that's way too strong for me, like the black market primarily provides. It's a million times more convenient and not much more expensive overall (unless you buy some premium products maybe).
- latchkey 4y ago
  I'm very long out of the business, it is several lifetimes ago for me, which is why I'm comfortable talking about it now. Grey market at scale is a pain in the ass, and risky. You need people to buy pounds at a time, in cash. A big bag for a big bag. You basically need to set up a supply chain that you can trust... this is why the DEA a lot of the time finds weapons with drugs. So yea... growing for friends is easy... growing to make a living, is a real pain in the ass.
  - dr-detroit 4y ago
    [dead]
AtlasBarfed 4y ago
And the revolution will be corporatized. Once the federal level stuff gets sorted out, you think ma and pop growers will be able to compete with big tobacco or some other outfit? This is a dependency-forming market opportunity. It's likely a 10s of billions market, maybe hundreds. Alcohol is 287 billion per year. I guess the only good news is that cannabis is a lot easier to self-produce than tobacco. And once they figure out how to get nicotine into cannabis...
- draw_down 4y ago
  [dead]

a2tech 4y ago

In Michigan now that its legal the prices have plummeted. I just saw a place advertising $100 for 2 full ounces for new recreation customers. Thats an insane deal. I'm sure its not the best stuff but its a shocking amount.

pixl97 4y ago
I mean $100 for 2 ounces of the marijuana plant in particular isn't cheap at all. There are some 'mild' complications in growing it, but in theory it should end up more like a bulk farming product where we talk about dollars per pound on the retail side, and dollars per ton on the wholesale side.
- nickthegreek 4y ago
  Wild to not consider that cheap! In Ohio, with a med card, you will pay over $300 for 1.
  - asdff 4y ago
    There's a reason why there are dispensaries for ohioans set up just across the michigan border.
    - nickthegreek 4y ago
      I believe the acceptable mold level in Michigan is 10x that of Ohio. Price is only one component, many people like a tightly regulated medical market to ensure safety.
      - asdff 4y ago
        If it were at a sufficient level for people to start getting sick you'd expect to see an increase in people with related issues, but you don't when you seek out news on this factoid, just a statement on the level being higher than in another place. Most products you consume will have at least some mold on them.
        aliqot 4y ago
        Or just turn it into an extraction, problem solved. Not many spores can survive a solvent wash, I don't know of any research that says they do.
        asdff 4y ago
        Their metabolites might be left behind.
      - kortilla 4y ago
        Or the tight regulation produces higher prices without any particular improvement to the product (e.g. taxi medallions). “tightly regulated” != “better”
  - tfehring 4y ago
    It's cheap for weed, but expensive for a relatively high-volume part of a relatively easy-to-grow plant. Imagine seeing an $800/pound price tag in the produce section of your grocery store.
- jjulius 4y ago
  >I mean $100 for 2 ounces of the marijuana plant in particular isn't cheap at all. Where are prices so low that $100 for 2 ounces "isn't cheap at all"?
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    It’s cheap but not that cheap depending on quality. “Cheap quality” deals around WA and OR can be as low as $35/oz
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - ChoGGi 4y ago
    Canada ;)
- nibbleshifter 4y ago
  Where I live 2 ounces would be around 750-900$ (converted roughly to usd). Its also illegal.
LBJsPNS 4y ago
I can buy ounces all day in Portland for $20. Is it Jesus incarnate? Nope. Is it perfectly good sinsemilla that gets ya high? Yup.
- encryptluks2 4y ago
  Where? I live in Portland and would love to try a $20 ounce.
  - jjulius 4y ago
    Seconded. I'm not gonna argue that it's not cheap here, but $20 for an ounce is way too low to be true. Unless, of course, it's far worse than "Jesus incarnate".
    - eigen 4y ago
      looking at weedmaps, there are a few places with 1 oz in the $20s. $25 FA Ranch Mangolicious at Electric Lettuce [1] $28 Blueberry Muffin at Floyd's Fine Cannabis [2] if you're willing to travel, $20.83 Pineapple Upsidedown Cake at THClear [3] [1] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/electric-lettuce-northeast-dispensary/menu/fa-ranch-mangolicious https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/electric-lettuce-northeast... [2] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/floyd-s-fine-cannabis-on-whitaker-2/menu/blueberry-muffin-by-uncle-john-s-farm https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/floyd-s-fine-cannabis-on-w... [3] https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/thclear-lebanon/menu/park-union-preground-28g-sativa-pineapple-upsidedown-cake https://weedmaps.com/dispensaries/thclear-lebanon/menu/park-...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
HDThoreaun 4y ago
In Illinois the opposite has happened. Been legal for going on 3 years now and an mid quality ounce goes for $300-400 minimum. 1 gram carts retail for $60 plus taxes bringing it to an easy 80. I just drive to Michigan now since the prices there are 4x lower, but the black market is doing quite well here since the number of smokers has increased and prices are half for similar quality flower.

hotpotamus 4y ago

I remember reading something years back that applying modern large scale ag technology to cannabis was never a technical hurdle, merely a legal one, and how much cheaper it would be once the well-capitalized giants got ahold of it and came to pretty much the same conclusion. It did make for a neat trip through Colorado in 2017 when it was still pretty novel though.

asdff 4y ago
It actually is a technical hurdle because not a lot of academic research is being done on it for commercial growers to use. You see some papers out there that cover things like yield per light spectrum or what soil ammendments do for terpene content, but they all come out of Canada and specifically McGill. It's like U.S. researchers are blackballed by their institutions or maybe their grant funding agencies. As such, techniques like plant tissue culture that are commonly done with other crops and expensive ornamentals in the U.S. are rarely done with cannabis because growers that do these techniques are often tight lipped about things such as the most ideal media composition or really anything else related to methodology. Meanwhile with crops such as corn, you have entire land grant universities planting test crops as we speak and biology departments dedicated to maize genetics, and thats true for almost every other large commercial crop. Billions are spent on research by the federal and state governments. Agriculture takes advantage of all of this research and development when producing commercial crops, but none of this investment is being made for cannabis and when it is done by these private companies they are not proliferating their findings.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  Corn feeds millions of people and animals. Pot? It doesn’t feed anyone. So I can understand the funding disparity.
  - asdff 4y ago
    It's not so much as a disparity as the funding is simply nonexistent. Pot doesn't feed anyone of course, but its legitimate medicine.

asdff 4y ago

I'm not sure what your operation was but I think there is still a market for your crop. There's plenty of weed in the dispensary, yes, but its taxed sometimes 30%. You get what you think is a cheap oz of weed but its in a sealed bag, and when you open it up it does the job sure according to THC % but its all that shake and larf and ugly stuff that comes from the trim bag and rock hard cure style of prep commercial growers do. There's a reason why the grey market remains so huge.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
standardUser 4y ago
I've had the exact opposite experience with recreational stores. A wide selection of accurately labelled and high quality products, instead of just a bag of weed that's way too strong for me, like the black market primarily provides. It's a million times more convenient and not much more expensive overall (unless you buy some premium products maybe).
latchkey 4y ago
I'm very long out of the business, it is several lifetimes ago for me, which is why I'm comfortable talking about it now. Grey market at scale is a pain in the ass, and risky. You need people to buy pounds at a time, in cash. A big bag for a big bag. You basically need to set up a supply chain that you can trust... this is why the DEA a lot of the time finds weapons with drugs. So yea... growing for friends is easy... growing to make a living, is a real pain in the ass.
- dr-detroit 4y ago
  [dead]

AtlasBarfed 4y ago

And the revolution will be corporatized. Once the federal level stuff gets sorted out, you think ma and pop growers will be able to compete with big tobacco or some other outfit? This is a dependency-forming market opportunity. It's likely a 10s of billions market, maybe hundreds. Alcohol is 287 billion per year. I guess the only good news is that cannabis is a lot easier to self-produce than tobacco. And once they figure out how to get nicotine into cannabis...

draw_down 4y ago
[dead]