Ideal Cannabis Economics Part 3: Retail

Cannabis retail as we know it didn’t really exist before legalization. The predecessors to today’s retailers were medical collectives that operated under Prop 215 or in legal gray areas to serve patients. These ranged from pharmacy-like settings with a strong medical approach, to casual spots that operated loosely with more focus on freeing the herb than specifically treating ailments. For the vast majority of people, buying cannabis happened through friends and dealers, as a fairly casual arrangement. Prices fluctuated due to friend rates, product quality, scarcity, region, and countless other factors. Quality was highly variable, with most people being sure theirs was the best. With no way to verify source, cleanliness, concentration, or age, everything was largely based on trust and reputation. Packaging was usually in plastic bags and mason jars, with unique or identifiable packaging largely avoided for reasons of maintaining a low legal profile. Consumer education was often through word of mouth, or the few media outlets that talked about cannabis. In the early days, nobody was concerned whatsoever with THC percentage or terpenes, since there was no popular knowledge of these scientific terms. Over time, as TCH gained notoriety through media, medical cannabis, and law, more people gained interest in the concentration of their cannabis, which led to the urban myth that higher THC= better weed. <a href="https://higher-origins.medium.com/ideal-cannabis-economics-part-3-retail-a39bb5786b92">Website</a>