Seeing protesters collide with ice on a cannabis farm in California
This is the moment when ice agents deployed pellets and gas to protesters during a raid on a cannabis farm in Southern California.
These days, everything seems to be more expensive.
The price of a 1 ounce of cannabis in Massachusetts plummeted from $394 in 2020 to $145 in 2024, according to an analysis by the Industry Publishing Cannabis Business Times. Michigan ounces weed cost between $419 and $84 in 2024. The main price fell from $449 to $206.
Weed prices are falling when shoppers expect to pay more for almost everything else. Consumer prices are on average 24% higher than they were launched in 2020, Bankrate reports.
“I call it a breakdown,” said Ross Gordon, a policy analyst at the Origins Council, a group representing small cannabis farmers in California.
In California, wholesale cannabis once costing more than $1,000 per pound, Gordon said. “And now we’re at $250 per pound, which certainly is below the production costs of most smallholder farmers.”
Until recently, recreational cannabis clinics were almost free to charge what they wanted. There were few pharmacies. Supply was limited. Many weed retailers were mostly rolling on dough, as sales were mostly made in cash.
However, over the past few years, the American weed economy has collapsed. The market is full of overlapping clinics and excess weeds. Supply is far beyond demand.
“We’ve had a lot of fun,” said Bo Whitney, a cannabis economist in Portland, Oregon. “But it’s great for consumers because they get cheap weeds.”
Whitney estimates that 27% of the cannabis business will be profitable in 2025, counting retailers, distributors and growers. Some operators are broken. And about a third of the cannabis market is “just losing money,” he said. “We’re losing their home.”
Michigan’s Doubtful Honor: Cheapest Weed
Michigan may now have the cheapest legal weed in the country to the potential for frustration of producers and sellers and the joy of buyers.
One-eighth of recreational cannabis, a standard unit of sale that costs $60 or $70 at a Michigan pharmacy, is the unit of sale. Michigan cannabis lobbyist Joe Neller said prices are now in the “$10 range.”
Recreational cannabis sales began in Michigan in 2019. At the time, he said ounces of cannabis at Michigan clinics cost over $200, reflecting the street prices of illegal weeds at the time.
Today, ounces cost around $60.
Price crashed for a number of reasons. First, there is a significant reduction in the risk of growing, shipping and selling marijuana. Simply put, legal market growers and sellers no longer endanger prison time.
However, these days, the main problem is oversupply. Cannabis growers and sellers are poured into markets in Michigan, Massachusetts and other newly legitimate weed states.
“We have retailers who are literally competing with each other on the same street,” Neller said.
In Massachusetts, the “fight to the bottom” of cannabis
In Massachusetts, Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, said:
As a result, “were at the bottom of this kind of battle in terms of price,” he said.
A pre-rolled joint that sold for $14 to $16 at a Massachusetts clinic a few years ago, Dominguez said. Today, the average price ranges from $6 to $8.
About 20 Massachusetts cannabis businesses closed in 2025, Dominguez said. It was closed twice in 2024.
California was the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use in 1996. To date, 42 states and the District of Columbia have legalized weeds for medical use, according to the trade magazine Mjbizdaily. 24 states and DC approved recreational or adult cannabis.
Prices fell faster in states that previously legalized recreational cannabis, including Colorado (2012) and Oregon (2014).
Weed prices are still falling in Colorado and Oregon. But they generally drop faster in states that have recently legalized weeds.
Who is blaming the collapse of cannabis?
Lobbyists and industry leaders say that part of the responsibility lies with state regulators. State regulators say they are reluctant to limit the number of producers and sellers who can enter the legal cannabis market.
“There weren’t many models of how to bring illegal markets to the light,” said Cannabis economist Whitney. With an unlimited license, he states: “We’re going straight into these scenarios where supply and demand are upside down. So there’s too much supply. So the price is going to fall.”
Industry advocates say the state should consider curbing new cannabis licenses. “And we combine that with economic analysis of the market,” Dominguez said it would need to see how many producers and dispensers the state can support.
Nationally, the cannabis market can support around £50 million in cannabis sales per year, Whitney said. However, growers have grown more than twice that.
“We have two and a half hours of capacity that the entire market can cover,” he said. “That’s the price collapse.”
Cannabis customers may also bear some responsibility for price drops.
Consumers will pay more for microbrewery beers, ethically sourced chocolates, or Sonoma County wines. However, in many of the cannabis industry, Gordon, Neller and other industry advocates say the sensibility of “craft” is not actually known.
Can Chee-ch and Chong save the cannabis industry?
Cheech and Chong, Snoop Dogg and the late Jerry Garcia all turned their heads with celebrity cannabis brands.
But “After a while, people realize that it’s all the same product,” Neller said.
It appears that weed customers are not inclined to pay more for hemp harvested without pesticides, hand-cut, or grown in famous areas. Cannabis cannot be technically referred to as “organic.” Because it is a federal classification and weeds remain illegal under federal law.
“Not only is it at a higher price, but there is no separate lane for higher quality,” Gordon said.
California regulators have launched a cannabis “appeal” system similar to local labeling for fine wine. That’s probably the beginning.
“It’s coming before craft cannabis is evaluated for several reasons, Gordon said.
