Marijuana Price Jumped 11% Last Week to $1,932

For the week ended Friday, December 11, the spot price index for a pound of cannabis increased by $198 (about 11%) from $1,734 in the prior week to $1,932. The simple (non-volume-weighted) average price for a gram ticked down from $4.67 to $4.66.

The futures price for January rose from $1,680 to $1,800 on the near-month contract. For the month of February 2016, the forward price increased from $1,775 a pound to $1,850. The six-month forward price for June 2016 is $2,050 a pound, unchanged from the prior week.

About two-thirds of the past week’s transactions occurred in a range of $1,682 to $2,544 per pound, according to the analysts at Cannabis Benchmarks. The volume-weighted average price in Colorado fell 4%, from $2,040 in the previous week to $1,956 a pound last week.

The volume-weighted average price in California last week jumped to $1,760 per pound, up 22% from the prior week’s price of $1,445. The Colorado-California price gap narrowed from $5.95 to $1.96 per pound (or $0.43 per gram).

According to Cannabis Benchmarks, the volume-weighted average price of cannabis in Oregon slipped 5% last week, from $1,920 to $1,826 a pound. In Washington prices were up 3%, from $1,648 per pound a week to $1,703.
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Cannabis Benchmarks noted that supply cannot keep up with demand:

With increased access, social acceptance, media coverage and integration with pop culture, new consumers are becoming regular consumers. … Legal sales are on track to more than double, from less than $3 billion in 2014 to more than $6 billion in 2015, and demand continues to rise faster than supply.

As for the outlook, the analysts are expecting prices to continue rising:

The past 4-5 weeks have reset expectations for prices to trend similar to last year. Demand for larger quantities of higher quality flower continue to push up prices. Buyers and sellers are now anticipating that prices will climb faster in the new year, as black market supplies are not appearing to suppress prices as much or for as long as they have in the past.

Our price check at MJCharts.com indicates prices range from $25 a gram to a low of $3 in the all-cities index. The overall average price for a gram of marijuana (all strains) in Colorado is currently $11.30, ranging from a high of $12 a gram to a low of $8. In California the price is $14.29 per gram, ranging from $25 down to $6 per gram, and in Michigan the average is $17.05 per gram in a range of $20 to $10. In Oregon the average is $10.32 per gram in a range of $20 to $3, while in Washington the average is $10.94 per gram, ranging from a high of $15 to a low of $6.