6 ms·

My hometown of Spokane, WA just opened the first legal marijuana store all of two days ago. They sold out right away, so... the demand is definitely there. Wha

My hometown of Spokane, WA just opened the first legal marijuana store all of two days ago. They sold out right away, so... the demand is definitely there. What will be really interesting to see is how the state can compete with the existing growers/dealers RE: price. Right now to buy marijuana legally in Spokane it's about $700/oz. Your friendly neighborhood dealer will have it for $200. As it is now, there's not a lot of incentive for the old growers/dealers to go legal, because it'll cut into their profits (and their customers won't want to pay more anyway).

gwern 12y ago
The paper notes a similar dynamic: right now, it's much cheaper to buy marijuana there as a medical marijuana user, and so 'retail' sales are only a small fraction of total consumption because they're having a hard time competing on price. (This explains something that confused me in coverage: out of state visitors represent a majority of retail purchases, it seems, but they represent <10% of total consumption - because all the locals are buying medical marijuana, growing their own, getting weed from 'caregivers', etc.0