skip to Main Content
What’s Cheap? Depends Upon Where the Sales Takes Place

How much is that bag of Kosher Kush-infused gummies in the window?

Among other things, it depends upon the state from which the tropical-fruit gummies are purchased. Colorado? Ouch. The average gummy product — most of which are packages containing 100 mg of THC divided between 10 individual gummies (unless the product is for microdosing, in which case there will be more gummies, each of which will pack a smaller THC punch) — cost $18.48 during the first quarter of 2018 according to cannabis marketing research firm BDS Analytics. The Centennial State is the priciest for gummies. If you buy your sack of chewy fun in Oregon, the cost is a bit more reasonable, at an average of $16.52 during Q1. Californians who are gummy-crazy are the luckiest of all. A package of gummy confections there sells for $14.55. Way to go, California gummy consumers!

First-quarter edibles sales in Colorado, Oregon and California.

Don’t get too excited, Golden Staters. The gummies for sale up and down the state might be among the most affordable in the country, but few other California products win the cheap sweepstakes. Overall, the average price for a cannabis product in CA — a product defined as a gram of flower or a “unit,” like a vape pen or a bag of gummies — was $14.36 during the first quarter of 2018, which is the period under study in this article. That doesn’t sound like too much until you consider Colorado, where the average product is slightly more than half of the price in California, at $7.97. Oregan prices hit $9.81, still far below California prices.

How do things shake out, price-wise, between the states? It all depends upon the product for sale. The main reason for the epic difference between California’s average price for a cannabis product and the prices in other states revolves around flower. In California, a gram of flower costs $10.11 pre-tax. Oregonians spend far less — $6.47 — for that gram. And in Colorado flower seems like a steal, with an average per-gram price of $4.91.

California tends to be the most expensive market for most products, but not all. Golden State consumers, for example, spend an average of $14.54 for baked goods, but Oregonians drop $16.33 on baked goods (meanwhile, Coloradans spend $13.28 on baked goods). California, too, is cheaper than Colorado when it comes to tinctures: Golden Staters spend $45.82 on tinctures, which are a fast-growing category in all states. But Coloradans spend $46.24 on tinctures (meanwhile, Oregonians spend just $38.63 on the products, which normally come in a dropper bottle).

Prices for vapes, the most popular concentrate product in all states, with sales remaining strong, are cheapest in Colorado, at $33.92. Oregon vapes sell for $39.58. In California, where vapes rule concentrate sales more powefully than any other state? The average vape goes for $42.44.

The cannabis marketplace is fluid, with prices and trends always evolving. When California switched its marketplace from medical to recreational on Jan. 1, regulations and taxes grew more burdensome for growers, brands and retailers — and prices rose. As the cannabis market matures in the Golden State, prices are likely to inch down as they have in other states with recreational cannabis sales.

Doug Brown

Doug Brown

Douglas Brown spent more than two decades in newspaper and magazine newsrooms around the country, covering everything from the White House and Capitol Hill to technology policy to crime in New Mexico. Now, he runs Contact High Communications, a leading cannabis public relations firm based in Boulder, CO. He can be reached at www.contacthighco.com

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Stories

CDTFA Cannabis Creditor: Myths and Truths

By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell Dealing with creditors is never a fun experience. However, some creditors are more severe than others, especially in the cannabis industry. One of…

If FL Supreme Court approves cannabis ballot language, will voters go for recreational weed or not?

The long wait on whether Floridians will get a chance to vote to legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older is almost over, as the Florida Supreme Court is…

Missouri strips marijuana licenses connected to company accused of predatory behavior

Missouri’s health department on Wednesday stripped two coveted marijuana micro-licenses tied to an out-of-state company that had been accused of predatory practices and had listed the licenses for resale. The…

Dug In: Big Island Grown’s Deep Cannabis Roots

Big Island Grown (BIG) is a vertically integrated cannabis company based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii County, on the Big Island of Hawaii, whose reach now extends to several islands in the…

More Categories

Back To Top
×Close search
Search