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Data scrubbing. For example:

  California:
  High Quality: $359.19 / oz. (n=72)
  Medium Quality: $300 / oz. (n=17)
  Low Quality: $648 / oz. (n=2)     <-- ???
The low quality stuff is worth more than twice as much as the medium? The crazy numbers for low quality are on account of one wonky data point ($976/oz). There were also some obviously bunk ones like $1/oz, which someone probably did pay from a friend, but that doesn't reflect street value.

It's hard to do this in an automated fashion, though, at least until you have a good amount of data. A good place to start would be automatically flagging figures more than 2 standard deviations from the (local) mean, and hand-curating those. Keep track of "bad" data points, and as you find patterns you can add filters.



Yep, we haven't gotten around to filtering and cleaning up entries, but we'll definitely look to eliminate big outliers from our average calculations.

A lot of people have been pointing on the same thing you've been pointing out lol. That's why we added the n= for the time being.


The price for the High Quality doesn't make much sense either even with tons of data points. According to Yelp the most expensive dispensary in SF is Divinity Tree, and I think their onces are $360. Considering that basically everywhere else in the state should be cheaper than this I don't see how the average could possibly be 360.


Not everyone can get licenses to purchase from dispensaries, so a dispensary's price is not necessarily market price. Theres still a "black" market so to speak; of people who buy it illegally.


Yes, but the black market price is usually cheaper than the dispensary price.


Not entirely true. If I can't get a license, I have to buy off the black market; meaning I have to go through dealers who traffic under the risk of arrest and prosecution. That creates the premium price that drugs have today, everywhere. Thus it makes sense for a drug dealer to charge more than the price available legally, because buyers without licenses have no choice.

However, there are also demand and supply side things going on that we might not know about that is affecting the price.


Not entirely true. If I could buy pot at the dispensary and my friend couldn't, I'd just buy it for him and split it down the middle.


Yeah, but you have to look at the big picture. Not everyone has friends with licenses. Your still doing a favor for a friend and breaking the law, meaning you deserve a premium on the resale (not that you'd take anything from a friend).


In California illegal weed is cheaper than legal weed. That's just an empirical fact. It doesn't matter if you think it shouldn't be this way, that's just how it is.


Source of empirical fact?




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