

Legalization could slash the price of pot 80% - edw519
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0708-pot-legalization-20100708,0,2661645.story

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keefe
This is all a bunch of nonsense.

First off, we couldn't even manage to pass gay marriage because of the large
number of conservatives who vote, but who we don't hear about.

$38 for an ounce? Even optimizing everything with NO taxes, this would be
incredibly difficult.

Not that I have researched the matter...

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parfe
Growing it at home is practically free. Like home-brewing beer people will
grow for fun. More entertaining than a tomato garden.

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keefe
except for all the electricity, fertilizer, equipment, water?

You ever look up the type of lights you need and how much power they draw? how
quickly various bits of the setup degrade?

but yes people will grow a plant or two for fun...

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parfe
Having never looked into it before [http://www.specialty-lights.com/plantgrow-
questions.html#fun...](http://www.specialty-lights.com/plantgrow-
questions.html#functioning)

$250 for a 400W grow light with a 5 year warranty

$20/mo for the electric for the lights

$16 to fill a 5,000 gallon pool. No idea how much water the plants would need,
but I assume less than that but lets say that is a monthly cost.

$14 for a 40lb bag of fertilizer

Never had to purchase drugs, but lets say the seeds of the strain you want
cost $250.

$500 startup cost and $50/mo for running costs. 5 producing plants and 5
seeding plants

Over the course of a year you spend $600. The net claims 17.5oz average yield
per plant.

Unless I made a gross error $30/oz is completely reasonable.

~~~
keefe
one 400W bulb isn't sufficient, as far as I know (I have also never grown, but
have known people that have) From what I hear, one bulb MAY get you ONE plant
harvest (2-3 ounces) every 3 months, IF you do it all right. My understanding
was you need 3-4 lights. There's no way you're growing 5 plants from 1 400
watt bulb.

>$20/mo for the electric for the lights

this doesn't seem right, let's do 500 watts for simplicity (watering system
etc needs more power) So, 0.5 kwh 18 hours a day, so 270 kwh per month so
you're starting at like... $40-$70/light.

so maybe $400 + $70/mo per plant, 3-4 harvests a year depending on how often
you fuck up, that's like 300-400 a plant or about 100-150 an ounce, same as
know-a-guy prices outside of cali...................

>Never had to purchase drugs, but lets say the seeds of the strain you want
cost $250.

They're way cheaper than that, but you also need mylar lining, watering
system, etc.

forget about the warranty, you can't send them weed encrusted stuff and expect
to get it back.

~~~
parfe
> So, 0.5 kwh 18 hours a day, so 270 kwh per month so you're starting at
> like... $40-$70/light.

Electricity is 10 cents/kwh in my area which comes out to $27/mo (I used a
400W light in my original post @ $20/mo) unless I'm calculating it wrong? But
I just realized we're talking about CA here and their electric bill
calculations seem to be all sorts of messed up, so I give up.

>forget about the warranty, you can't send them weed encrusted stuff and
expect to get it back.

If it was legal I don't see why warranties would be a problem. In fact, the
light retailers would be able to start marketing explicitly to that market
rather than side stepping the topic.

~~~
keefe
ahhh yeah I live in CA where it's insanely high and has that crazy sliding
scale, I figured it as 0.15-0.27 from some website.

Unless the company was in CA and it was totally legal, the equipment becomes
paraphernalia and they won't do shit with it... and of course if they can
screw you there they will.

anyway whatever it's a moot point, law will never pass

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CapitalistCartr
Pot is a weed. It's like growing St. Augustine grass, or dandelions. If it
were legal to grow, before taxes it'd be about a dollar an ounce to make
wholesale. Decent soil, lots of water, my favorite 8-12-16 fertilizer, epson
salts, a bit of iron sulfate, and that stuff would explode. Once it's being
grown on many acres, the cost per ounce is trivial.

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jedsmith
Which, ironically, makes it harder for legalization advocates to get it done.
No matter which side you're on, it's tragic that uncertainty will probably
kill this motion - at least, that's how the article read to me.

~~~
ojbyrne
This seems clearly to be written from an anti-legalization perspective as a
worst case scenario.

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jawngee
God I hope so. We are paying $100 an eighth for Sour Deisel in NYC.
Outrageous.

~~~
DrJokepu
While I don't take drugs I know people who do and let me tell you that they're
making a fool of you; $100 for an eighth is way too high anywhere in the
world, even in NYC. Anything above $50 is completely unrealistic (and even
that's ridiculously expensive). You should find a better "young entrepreneur".

~~~
jawngee
Well I know people who have been smoking for well over 25 years (me) and I can
tell you the bud I buy for $100 an eighth is Amsterdam Cup quality.

And $50 has been the norm for an eighth in NYC for the last 10+ years.

It's still outrageous though. I used to buy similar quality for $450 an oz.
That guy is doing 15 years now though.

~~~
DrJokepu
Well, where I live (London, UK), the regular price for "Amsterdam" quality is
£20 for an eighth, which is about $30, it's a bit surprising that they charge
that much for it in NYC. I suppose all the smuggling and the demand make it
more expensive. But once again, I don't take any drugs, I only heard about it
from friends / heard about it on the radio, so I don't have any first-hand
experience, of course.

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protomyth
The author of the article doesn't understand the government's capacity to tax.

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clavalle
Not to mention peoples appetite for profit and the power of anchoring.

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swah
Whould it be heavily taxed like cigarettes?

