Surveys show that the Keystone State has some of the highest prices for medical cannabis in the nation.
Cannabis is most often sold in eighths of an ounce, which can be rolled into about seven joints. An eighth of Gorilla Glue 4 marijuana sells for $35 in California. It’s $40 in Maine. It costs $58 in Pennsylvania.
In Colorado, a full ounce of average weed often sells to consumers for $190. In Pennsylvania, the price is closer to $500. Some especially rapacious growers charge $600.
“The patient community is always outraged about the prices,” said Luke Shultz, a member of the state’s medical-cannabis advisory board. “I’m not sure where the price should be. But we’d sure like to see it lower.”
Why is this legal weed so expensive? Blame it on many unexpected factors that have plagued the 2½-year-old medical-cannabis program. They range from old-fashioned profiteering to a state law that has kept supply to a minimum, from a host of expensive regulations to an embryonic agency timid about using its legal authority to drive down prices.
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