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

This doesn't make sense because it's not true.<p>I was an avid pot smoker in my college days (long time ago, now) and even over the relatively small span of a 3 year time period I paid everything for a quarter-ounce (~7 grams) from $10 ("ditch weed") to $400 (REALLY good stuff from Cali or Colorado). So I'm not sure what he's talking about with the $10/gram thing being some benchmark that's lasted decades.<p>I know that's anecdotal evidence, but it's the shared experience of every smoker or ex-smoker I've ever known. And considering the wide variations of produce quality, I think it's odd to suggest that prices are tied to any sort of specific weight.<p>It's like saying, "Fish always costs $x per pound. (man) Why?" The answer is simply, "No it doesn't."

There is a huge variation in the price of pot, depending on the type of pot (again, a large variation), where you are, what time of year it is, and who you are buying it from.<p>What the $10 is referring to are the bags you can buy on street corners in some cities. It is the same with crack and heroin, a standard and simple price, with standard terminology (a bag, a dime, etc.) all to make the street-based transaction easier and less conspicuous.<p>It has no bearing on the real value of pot, which can vary from a few dollars a gram through to $50+ a gram. What changes is the type and amount of pot you get in a $10 bag.

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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.

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.<p>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?

$10 is how much a bag costs, how much a bag contains is the variable I would think. Kind of the opposite of gasoline.

Currently a gram of medical grade marijuana (or any 'good quality' pot) is around $20.<p>The author says that a gram costs, and always has costed, $10. This can certainly be true today if he's buying relatively low quality marijuana. If he's been smoking for many decades, he'd notice the quality of pot has gone up significantly, but so has the price. The kind of stuff my generation's parents smoked in the 70s is now what people are selling for $10 a gram, and apparently what the author is still buying.

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?

Perhaps it's just convenient to pass a $10 note. No change required.

It's really simple.<p>The increase in potency strongly correlates with the increase in inflation.<p>He is probably holding quality as a fixed constant, so the real price goes down as the products relative inferiority increases, and the increase in nominal price due to inflation cancels it out.<p>edit: (man)

Good question. The answer to that should be related to the answer to why things change in price.<p>Reasons for a smaller dollar amount: inflation, cheaper production, too few buyers, too many sellers (thus more competition)<p>Reasons for a bigger dollar amount: more expensive production, too many buyers, too few sellers (thus less competition)<p>I'm no economist but I suppose the reason should be a combination of the above. However, my intuition would expect weed gets cheaper over the years due to inflation and competition. So there is probably another reason: It might have to do with weed culture itself, which is highly ritualistic I think. The ritual (of consumption) probably doesn't change and the price doesn't change either.

IANAPothead, though I do pick up once or twice a year for concerts and to be a good host.<p>By far the mode price I've encountered for 1/8 oz (3.5g) is $25; $30 if something very special (though this is in Southern Ontario and British Columbia, and I've apparently been spoiled for quality). Seeing this hold so exactly when I moved from Toronto to Vancouver was my delightful first real encounter with communication-without-intent through large-scale dynamic systems.<p><pre><code> ---</code></pre> Epilogue: somehow, I keep ending up being very good friends with small-time drug dealers, and Apple employees.

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.<p>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.

I'd grant that, while not always $10, the price of a gram (usually the smallest unit sold, other than guys selling individual joints here and there) - the reason you don't see a lot of price fluctuation is becuase this is a bottom-end price. The markup is already huge - there is lots of market fluctuation for the people buying from growers and buying quarter-pounds and whatnot, depending on quality, quantity, market, etc..... but at some point, it's weed man. It's not worth someone's time to do a transaction for less than $10 (or similar) - even if they're buying at a much lower price.

Yeah that was my first thought - supply has kept up with demand enough to offset inflation.<p>Tobacco, coffee, gold are better currencies alternatives to weed due to their stable legality. Weed's stable demand in relatively illegal times may change drastically if it becomes completely legal. But if that happens, it may be more stable a currency than tobacco since most people on it feel that it does no harm and therefore don't feel incentivized to quit.

Tim Harford is always an excellent read/listen. I highly reccomend his Radio 4 programme, "More or Less": <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/more_or_less/default.stm" rel="nofollow">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/more_or_less/default.s...</a>

Well, that struck me as a pretty pompous answer from the economics dude. If he could have been bothered, he could have found official price stats for various drugs and then written something factual.

Glad to see comments being posted where nobody has any true expertise. Proof: The conversation should have turned to "grade" from "quantity" and hasn't.<p>Good on all of you. Don't rearrange your own 1's and 0's.<p>I'm no expert either, thankfully. Although the medical benefits do seem to be real (i.e. pain reduction, appetite stimulation, etc.)

Did any of you actually read the text? The Economist's answer is hilarious.

Because the math is easier for suppliers who don't want make change.

12,5 grams is 60 liras (~$45) in Turkey.

In my experience, if you are going to buy a gram of good weed in anywhere but northern california or colorado, $20 is about the going rate.

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.