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Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

timharford.com

21–30 of 82 posts

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#21
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in the text he says the $10 refer to 1 gramme.

Is cannabis routinely cut, as hard drugs are? I can't imagine it would be terribly hard to find similarly-burning vegetation to dilute the amount of product in a fixed-weight bag at a level undetectable to the average buyer.

I have heard of people using hairspray to weigh it down. Turning shwag to the sticky icky.. at least enough to fool high school kids.

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#22
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in the text he says the $10 refer to 1 gramme.

Is cannabis routinely cut, as hard drugs are? I can't imagine it would be terribly hard to find similarly-burning vegetation to dilute the amount of product in a fixed-weight bag at a level undetectable to the average buyer.

Those bastards gave me 75 proof bourbon, said it was 95!!

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#23
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when a candy bar was 1/2 today's size. Everywhere you go it's "supersized this" and "supersized that". Even snickers bars are 2" longer, 1/2" thicker, and 1/2" wider than they used to be.

I think you are mistaken. Perhaps you're thinking of the "king size" version which costs more? http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/rising_cost_of_candy/

Perhaps, I haven't purchased one since I stopped doing packaged foods, but I no longer notice the standard sized candy bars, the liquor store counters and grocery store check-out aisles seem to be filled only with the "king size" versions.

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#26
I was curious enough about this to ask a pothead friend about this, his statement is that buying in such small quantities he expects to pay $20-$25 per gram for "high grade" plant material at the pot stores^W^Wmedical marijuana dispensaries in SF. "$10 is what suburban tourists pay for a gram of twigs, seeds, and brown mexiweed on haight street". was his direct quote.

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#27
This is ridiculous ... not that I'm an expert or anything but $20 is the cost of a gram. How is this guy going to claim to have research without trying to buy it himself? This article is completely bunk. Compelling title since people love to discuss the economics of drugs but the premise is way off.

Also as someone who used to know the economics of weed, there are nickel, dime, and dub ($20) bags. This is for people like high school kids and street drug dealers that sell at this level though. I would add that you can probably buy dime bags from the hippies in Golden Gate Park SF, but that feels much more like a crack deal than some legitimate transaction.

You can also grab a quarter (1/4 of an ounce) but it's not going to cost you $25 ... it will cost you more than $100.

I love how this was good enough to be published in the Financial times even though it was wrong. There's a reason that the Freakonomics guys went and lived with the crack dealers: they wanted actual research, not second hand rumors.

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#28

I don't get why the response claims that the fixed price makes weed a stable currency. In principle, it just pegs weed to the dollar, right?

Yes, and a point that isn't mentioned in the article is that the price of weed might be dropping at roughly the same rate the American dollar is being inflated. So what we could be looking at is a coincidental equilibrium. As more US states decriminalize marijuana the costs (risk and otherwise) of production and distribution decrease. I'm in Denver, CO and just the other day walked past a small police station with a cannabis dispensary right next to it.

The times they are a-changin'.

* Edit: Made my initial point less ambiguous.

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#29
post #2

The answer is actually in the question. The questioner is accustomed to paying $10 for one gram. There was a time when the traditional "dime bag" was 1/10th ounce, or nearly three grams. The $10 price point has "stuck," but the grocery shrink ray strikes all products. Remember when a $1 candy bar was twice today's size?

Your age is showing. There was a time when a dime bag was 1/4th of an ounce. And I'm sure somebody even older than me is going to chime in with a recollection of an even more outrageous price.

Old men used to bemoan the price of gas and the morning paper.

Times have changed!

Re: Why is a bag of weed always $10 (man)?

#30
Based on what I see in the local paper, in the medical marijuana dispensaries here in Boulder, regular prices range from around $12 to $16 per gram for high grade medical marijuana. There are a variety of specials that bring it down to around $10, but that price seems low as a regular price. I suspect price varies a fair amount by location. I have heard in CA the prices are closer to $20 per gram in the dispensaries there.

Interestingly enough, the price at the dispensaries seems to be about what street prices were before the medical marijuana dispensaries became so prevalent, maybe even a tad lower.

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