Wow, it's really early for stoners to be up; I wonder if everyone just stayed up all night instead?

Lazy stoner joke is lazy.

Congratulations Washington State! Demonstration Proof.

What a joke, $20-25/grams? I'll stick with the delivery services, thank you very much.

So, at this rate it looks like the quasi-legal delivery services will be forced to shut down - sometime in the next decade or so.

Based on the amount of coverage, this news about pot may be more important than the recent SPU shooting or the Oso mudslide.
Ansel, talk Miley Cyrus into wearing a Jewish costume like Macklamore, and maybe next week you'll have your biggest story of the year!

@pioneer

Isn't it more like $13 a gram. The post says $26.50 for two grams with $6.68 in taxes. So retail is actually under $10 a gram which isn't too bad. Grew up paying $40 for an 1/8th (3.5 grams) so this isn't far off. It's not cheap and it's not what I pay these days but it's not outrageous.

@7, that is a special sale price if you look a little closer. Earlier stories about this show the some of the places are selling cheaper today only. Expect prices like that to double up soon.

I hope we don't let our corrupt government sell out to corporate fucks who will sell cheap shake to poor people and the good stuff to the rich while denying us the right to grow our own. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course they will.

@8 Hopefully competition will help to drive the price down because that's just ridiculous. Isn't the idea here to kill the black market. Also, anyone know what the prices are like in Colorado?

@11 - My friend bought an eighth for $40 and got a gram of kief for $5 as a bonus in Denver a couple months ago.

@12, there's a 25% tax. I don't think there's any additional sales tax beyond that.

Good to see the first sale was to a cross-border-pot-shopper. That'll keep the police nice and busy.

http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/id…
Tom Gorman heads a program in Denver that works with law enforcement to track drug busts in the region. He said Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas are already starting to see the effects of Colorado's legalized pot.

@9

Well stated. I considered, and you're on top it, the factual error. For Vegas kicks, I bet on my calculations.

Hrm, I guess this is bellingham, which has its own bag ban and charges for paper bags. Should he have paid $0.05 for that paper bag ?

Why do people who currently buy pot on the black market or from a dispensary care what the price is? The black market was just as illegal yesterday as it is today. The dispensaries are doing business as usual. Just carry on.

The market will figure out the right price. For occasional users I can't see $10/joint being much of a concern.

@17 I have to disagree. I think we should be trying to destroy the black market. Why should pot shops only be for occasional users?

@10 - the existence of a legal market will make grow your own for your own consumption defacto legal - it will be impossible to enforce. Sure, larger scale (commercial) growers will have to comply (eventually) with the tax and regulatory schemes (and the associated higher prices) but ultimately, so long as the cost of the legal market is at least close to the black market, people all throughout the supply chain will pay the premium to be legal.

Of course it's a 20 something skinny white boy!

@19 In the current police state, nothing is de facto legal. Those things will still be all the excuse the police need to raid your home and shoot your grandma.

Even if the retail stores are substantially more expensive than the black market they're going to do just fine. The casual pot smoker doesn't want to deal with the black market or commit fraud to get a medical card. They don't mind paying a premium for something that is a luxury good.

I'd love to see dispensaries and the black market go the way of the dodo, but we aren't there yet. If you think about it weed shouldn't cost much, the actual cost to grow is pretty low, its just a plant after all, especially if you could grow it outside and not use all that hydroponic equipment and chemicals. All the markup has been either due to being on the black market, supply and demand, taxes, and regulations.

@23 exactly. There is no reason that with the legal standing we have now that it shouldn't cost less than average black market. Even with taxes and such a serious profit can still be made even beating black market prices.

Well, it's gonna be expensive. We all know there are postings online. I've used Seattle.Janeslist.org to some success. It's a new site but specifically for seattle. I'm darn sure not paying $25 a gram for anything other than hundred year old brandy!

It will get cheaper. The legal industry is brand new. They have very few licensed growers right now, and have only approved about 13 acres worth of growing space. That's nothing. They won't have enough product. Sellers will sell for as much as they can and competition will not drive prices down. That will happen later though.

The government needs to get real and license a lot more growers and stop limiting the area on which growers can grow to such a great extent. I think even with the highest level commercial growing license a grower can only grow on 20 something thousand square feet, less than half an acre. What farmer grows a crop of anything on a commercial basis on less than half an acre? With a lot of crops most farmers are growing a lot more than a 100 acres on average. They need to go big because competition and the economy of scale is what drives prices down.

They're being too careful in Washington, and the rules they have now guarantee shortages in product, super high prices, and that there will be no mid grade or lower grade product because everyone will be trying to produce the strongest product they can produce so they can maximize profits from their tiny plots. Someday we'll have farmers growing it in huge fields under the sun, rather than expensive electric lights. They'll be making their money from high volume sales rather than high prices and the market will dictate the price like with other agricultural commodities.

It will get cheaper. The legal industry is brand new. They have very few licensed growers right now, and have only approved about 13 acres worth of growing space. That's nothing. They won't have enough product. Sellers will sell for as much as they can and competition will not drive prices down. That will happen later though.

The government needs to get real and license a lot more growers and stop limiting the area on which growers can grow to such a great extent. I think even with the highest level commercial growing license a grower can only grow on 20 something thousand square feet, less than half an acre. What farmer grows a crop of anything on a commercial basis on less than half an acre? With a lot of crops most farmers are growing a lot more than a 100 acres on average. They need to go big because competition and the economy of scale is what drives prices down.

They're being too careful in Washington, and the rules they have now guarantee shortages in product, super high prices, and that there will be no mid grade or lower grade product because everyone will be trying to produce the strongest product they can produce so they can maximize profits from their tiny plots. Someday we'll have farmers growing it in huge fields under the sun, rather than expensive electric lights. They'll be making their money from high volume sales rather than high prices and the market will dictate the price like with other agricultural commodities.