Too Much Weed: Washington Weed Supply Exceeds Demand

The weed market has reached a tipping point in Washington, due to an excess of cannabis available to consumers. Despite earlier concerns that there would not be enough legal cannabis to go around in Washington, pot producers have been able to supply far more ganja than expected. That means that for the benefit of lucky Washington weedists, prices in stores are dropping to incredible lows. This new development in Washington is sure to make other states green with envy.

“It’s crazy what we’re selling weed for, it’s so cheap. Wholesale prices are literally half of what they were in September,” said one Washington shop owner who sells cannabis for prices ranging from $10 to $23 a gram. That’s about the same price as the product in most medical dispensaries. But growers are outpacing consumer demand, Washington weedists can’t smoke the weed as fast as it’s being produced.

One curious farmer noticed an excess of weed around October and filed a records request with the Washington State Liquor Control Board to see how much weed was being produced. Records show a large discrepancy between the grams harvested and the grams being sold. There is about 10 times more cannabis getting produced than what is being purchased by consumers. From June through the end of November, growers produced approximately 11,500,000 grams of weed and stores sold 1,172,000 grams through November after they opened in early July.

The discrepancy is large, but it should be noted that cannabis loses weight as it dries out. Some of the difference may be due to the liquor board weighing the cannabis harvest before it had time to dry. At any rate the Washington State Liquor Control Board expected stores would not be able to sell all of their product with the competition of a new growing market.

“The market is still maturing. Not everyone is going to make it… We knew the supply system would be pretty robust,” said a Control Board spokesperson who warned against a ‘gold rush’ mentality in the Washington weed market. The Washington State Liquor Control Board does not publish a public list of sales data online indicating how much cannabis is being grown and sold in grams, to the dissatisfaction of Washington shop owners.

“I don’t know that we’re responsible for telling people how to run their business, and that’s what this is,” responded the Control Board spokesperson. To deal with leftover merchandise, some farmers have turned to storing their weed in bags flushed with nitrogen to keep the bud from oxidizing.