Posted on 01/06/2014 12:14:37 PM PST by Theoria
People looking to buy marijuana in Colorado are facing steep price hikes, long queues and shuttered stores as demand for recreational sales, which became legal in the state on New Years day, outstrips supply.
Prices for adult-use cannabis are both higher than medical (as expected) and going up since opening on January 1 based on limited supply and even larger than expected demand, said Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.
The trade group does not formally track prices, but estimates that recreational cannabis is selling for an average of $400 an ounce in Colorado twice the $200 charged on average for an ounce of medical marijuana.
At the Clinic Colorado in Denver, prices for recreational, or adult-use, marijuana ranged from $55 to $77 per eighth-ounce portion the most commonly sold amount compared with $37 to $46 for medical patients.
The supply squeeze is partially due to how Colorado has set up its retail market. For the first nine months of this year, dispensaries must grow 70 per cent of what they sell and growers must sell 70 per cent of what they grow through their own retail outlets, forcing vertical integration.
Only existing medical dispensaries are being granted retail licences in the early phases of Colorados market, adding to the bottleneck. The state has granted 136 licences to stores, but many did not begin selling immediately on January 1. Sixteen more stores have licences pending.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Can’t the Dept of Agriculture provide seedlings for personal growth?
Capitalism likes to get high too.
High profits!
Pay up to toke up!
Growers expected high demand but didn’t increase production because a new Call of Duty game had been released.
A stoned American is a controllable American.
A liberals dream!
Import some from Kentucky, they’ve got plenty, and it would benefit small farmers.
In my world the profits would go to border enforcement.
Okay, so how much for the child-use stuff?
Remember when this was all about the poor, poor glaucoma sufferers? Pffft... everybody knew it was a ruse to legalizes this crap. In other news, the stock prices for the makers of Doritos is now sky-high as well.
I’m guessing sales and use will go down after the newness of the law dies down.
Is open carry permitted in these marijuana stores???
How do Police know if the MJ you have on you was bought legally or not?
That's like calling pornographic movies "adult" movies. Adults don't do it. People with juvenile minds do...
Excellent question! LOL!
The notion that the illegal drug trade is going to disappear is ludicrous. The pushers still have a huge teen market to feed, will be selling legally grown Colorado weed to other states and - as with cigarettes - will be selling black market at prices lower than the official government sanctioned and taxed product. Also, many of the hoodlums will shift into harder drugs or other criminal ventures. Appeasing crime will not make it disappear.
More demand, higher prices will lead to more supply from all sources. This will be an interesting experiment.
That is around $8,000 a pound!
I give it less than a year and a Mexican drug cartel will take over every pot shop in CO.
I’ll take the brownie franchise for Boulder —
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