Prices of Cannabis in California from Licensed and Unlicensed Retailers

Robin S. Goldstein, Raffaele Saposhnik, and Daniel A. Sumner
from ARE Update Vol. 23, No. 3, Jan/Feb, 2020
View Article PDF: Prices of Cannabis in California from Licensed and Unlicensed Retailers
Abstract
Little public information or analysis is available about licensed or unlicensed cannabis prices. Here, we report on about 232,000 online cannabis prices from about 2,600 cannabis retailers across California, classified by location, package and product type, storefront or delivery-only, and licensed versus unlicensed status. We find that dried cannabis flower prices listed by licensed retailers average 11% higher than prices listed by unlicensed cannabis retailers. Prices are 25% higher at licensed compared to unlicensed storefronts and 7% higher at licensed compared to unlicensed delivery services. In this article, we further explore dried flower price comparisons by package size, delivery-only vs. storefront retailers, and region.
Keywords
Marijuana prices, legal versus illegal markets, illegal drugs, store and delivery prices
Citation
Robin S. Goldstein, Raffaele Saposhnik, and Daniel A. Sumner. 2020. "Prices of Cannabis in California from Licensed and Unlicensed Retailers." ARE Update 23(3): 1-4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1582050153/19556/