Dispensary marijuana sales tripled from 2013 to last year, according to an end-of-year medical marijuana report published by the Arizona Health Services this week.
In numbers from January 2014 to last month, there were close to 1.45 million individual sales among the reported 55,000 medical marijuana patients in the state, totaling 10 tons of marijuana. Patients between 18 and 30 bought the most pot than any other age group, Health Director Will Humble said.
In 2013, those figures were 2.7 tons sold in 433,000 transactions to 41,000 cardholders.
This hike is attributed to the fact that people who live within 25 miles of a dispensary cannot grow their own pot, something that had been recently challenged in a lawsuit filed in Maricopa County against the state health department. The more dispensaries there are, the less people will be able to cultivate marijuana as stipulated by the Medical Marijuana Act. As of now, health services’ figures show that there are about 85 dispensaries around the state, so a lot of people live close to one.
Medical marijuana users out there, what do you prefer? Is it better to grow your own, or are you a dispensary regular?
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.
Here’s what you need to know about growing your own medicine: Anyone with $500 minimum to spend on a good LED light can supply all their own for as little as 1/20th the cost per gram compared to medical card prices. After the payback period of your initial investment in growing equipment, (which is anywhere from 6 months to a year on average) you are only paying extra for electricity. Currently, an efficient LED light using 120 – 180 actual watts used can produce up to an ounce per square foot in a 6 sq ft footprint. You will make mistakes and have problems, but you will also learn the most on your first grow.
I wont go to a dispensary been to most. I have a medical MMJ card for medical ailments 3 years now. I did not join a life style or grouping. I order my prescription medication from Walgreen online. I don’t get happy hour special’s, punch cards, daily promotions and specials, sit for sometimes hour for medication. I need to know the cost of my medication so I can budget a life. This $20.00 a gram $420.00 an ounce is ridiculous. $150.00 mid shelf and $200.00 per ounce for top is market. Go to other states on Weed Maps see for yourself. Plus I have found a community caregiver that will grow for your ailment is paramount there is no guarantee what you get form a dispensary is really even the strain being advertised. I can attest if you go to Phoenix as I do weekly I can get quality lab tested medication by the ounce not gram for $8.00 a gram 225 oz wth tax included vet discount for top. It is simple getting them in the door is one thing getting back is another. If you cannot be economically viable with your growing operation then those that are will be in the future. I don’t not begrudge anyone for wanting and voting recreational and taxing it of a life style built around it.
What is happening is big BIG tobacco and alcohol are behind this recreational movement with these price’s set as normal they will blitz the dispensary or local grower but then at least it will be really lab tested and stain quantified. The proposition 106 that made it to the constitution of the state gave certain right’s to the medical patient every dispensary is in direct competition with that proposition and support the 25 mile rule. while they are still under that proposition 106 to be in business. Dispensaries want an umbrella for the state to guarantee the product market. Medication should not be or have intrastate regulation put on it. As for my support for dispensaries they have not helped me in understanding ailments strains they are useless for medical in my humble opinion
I will amend I made a mistake on the proposition number it is not 106 but Prop 203 of election year 2010. her is an interesting fact about the constitution wording that legalization proponents want retracted. article 9 of the amendment.
G. State law should make a distinction between the medical and nonmedical uses of marijuana. Hence, the purpose of this act is to protect patients with debilitating medical conditions, as well as their physicians and providers, from arrest and prosecution, criminal and other penalties and property forfeiture if such patients engage in the medical use of marijuana.
Well defined to me we don’t need a “regulatory judge” immune from following criminal guideline making this determination
They should allow the patient to grow. It costs less than 25 cents per gram to cultivate it. So why should we have to pay over a dollar much less $20 per gram. Ridiculous
EVERYONE should be allowed to grow their own marijuana, and it should be legal to use and share with your friends, etc. for whatever reason you choose.
The moment that happens is the same moment when we can stop gouging MMJ patients with ridiculous prices and punitive fees, and at the same time dramatically undercut the international marijuana trade (production is Mexico is already down after just a few states legalizing) and begin to minimize the incredibly destructive power of the cartels.
As long as prices are kept artificially high–whether it’s by the ridiculous drug war or by greedy, meddling state agencies and monopolistic dispensaries, doesn’t matter–then bad behavior will accompany the rush to cash in on the artificially inflated multi-billion-dollar market, while medical patients and harmless recreational users continue to suffer the consequences.
LEGALIZE. It’s the only sane and fair solution.
John smith 1 lmfao always tells people how much he saves on electricity with his 300w LED light instead a $299. 1000w setup: he knows electricity math better than he know his plants. His speech is polished this and he corners other people into listening to him talk about his failures, unbelievable. Never have I heard one single grower bragging about their LED harvest, not once. They may say it worked and they got some but they never brag about it.