Cannabis prices in Colorado are falling, according to a Business Insider report based on data from Tradiv, an online marijuana distribution platform. The wholesale cost of a pound of marijuana in the state is now between $1,400 and $1,600 in August, down from $2,400 to $2,600 last October.
“In less than a year, we’ve seen wholesale prices drop to nearly half of their previous totals,” John Manlove, director of sales at Tradiv, said in the report. “We’ve never seen prices like this.”
The drop can be attributed to a market that is rapidly being flooded. Growers are ramping up production, causing a “steady decline” in wholesale costs regardless of demand, Manlove said. There are no strict canopy limits in Colorado.
Manlove suggests that the wholesale price fall could also be due to Denver’s moratorium on granting licenses to new dispensaries and cultivation facilities, which has allowed a “minority of large cannabis business owners” to purchase and consolidate the remaining licenses.
According to a Longview, Washington Daily News report, similar market shifts are taking place in Washington. When the legal market emerged in the state in 2014, a gram of flower ran between $25 and $30. In January the Liquor and Cannabis Board reported the price to be about $10 per gram.