When recreational marijuana was first sold in Colorado at the beginning of last year, the prices were astronomical. As I heard one of my friends from Colorado say, ‘you can basically charge whatever you want right now for recreational marijuana at stores.’ I heard of people paying upwards of $100 for an eighth (3.5 grams) in Colorado in early 2014. But those prices were short lived. Compared to this time last year, Colorado marijuana prices are down as much as 37.5%. Per Marijuana Business Daily:
Increased competition has led to a decline in marijuana prices and per-customer spending, according to a survey of Colorado cannabis businesses.
Customers are spending about $50 per visit, half of what they were a year earlier, according to a survey by Convergex, a New York-based brokerage that services institutional investors. Flower now sells for $250 to $300 an ounce, on average, down from about $300 to $400 last year.
Increased competition as more recreational shops and dispensaries open is leading to the drop in prices, the company said, adding that the decline is a “function of a maturing market as dispensaries try to find the market’s equilibrium price.”
I think this is going to be a trend that we see in just about every state that legalizes the sales of recreational marijuana. At first prices will be through the roof, but as the hype wears off and more marijuana hits the shelves, prices will drop, and people will buy less per visit. This is a great thing not only for consumers who want the best deal, but also for marijuana legalization in general. The cheaper the prices are at stores, the harder it becomes to sell marijuana on the black market, which is something that helps the movement overall.
