I've been smoking weed for a long time. The first time I smoked weed was in Alaska in 1979. I smoked some Matanuska Thunderfuck. I had just finished building a deck and I just sat there, looked at the clouds, felt the breeze and decided that it was good.
Since then I've smoked a few pounds. I paid $2 an ounce in Thailand in 1980. I paid $120 an ounce for Mexican swag in Alabama in 1987. I paid $300 an ounce for kind bud in Nederland, CO in 1989. I suffered through the drought of 1990 when the the drug war was in high gear and there seemingly was no harvest.
I started paying $400 an ounce for Chem Dawg in 1994 and I smoked that for fourteen years. The price dropped to $350 an ounce in 2007 and in 2008 I started shopping at a dispensary. I was paying $350 an ounce.
Five years later, I have been growing commercially for four years for the medical market in Colorado. The weed I grow costs $802 a pound to grow and prep for sale. The risk premium is gone in Colorado and wholesale prices have dropped to $125 to $150 and ounce for weed that is better than anything you have ever smoked and sells for $200 an ounce in the dispensaries. Occasionally you can get an excellent $125 ounce. Our shop sells about 600 pounds a year. We have 15 employees.
At the same time, folks are paying $5,000 for a pound in Alabama. $3,200 dollars per thousand miles per pound. Sounds like a run for the Bandit.
Where are things headed? I think indoor production costs will drop below $600 a pound and greenhouse costs will drop below $400 a pound. Retail ounces of incredible weed will begin selling for $75 an ounce and the least expensive way to unwind will become a joint in the evening($1.60 a cone). Recreational sales start in 2014 and the influx of weed tourists should increase consumption beyond the 50,000 pounds a year being smoked in Colorado now. $150,000,000 a year industry plus in flowers created overnight, not to mention hash and edibles.
The risk premium is $3200 for a pound of black market weed, plus police, plus jails, plus violence, et al.
Legalized weed means tax revenues, jobs, and an end to another war. In Colorado, there are 8,000 jobs in the weed industry that were created in the last four years. We could create a half a million tax payers overnight nationally if we legalize and keep every dollar of marijuana money in the United States. If there is one thing we can do in America, it's smoke some ganja.
Legalize it!