The high cost of medical marijuana

Trulieve medical director Dr. Ken Brummel-Smith explains various products produced at Quincy plant.
(Photo: Jeffrey Schweers/Democrat)

Buying medical marijuana is a strictly cash business.


And it isn’t cheap.


Under the current regulatory framework, the seven licensees hold a tight grip on the supply pipeline.

“These companies put excessive amounts of money into operations to serve no customer base,” said Ben Pollara of Florida for Care, a group that campaigned for passage of Amendment 2.

Patient advocates want a more competitive playing field, hoping that having more people licensed to grow, produce and sell medical marijuana will drive down the cost and provide a broader variety. They also warn that as long as it stays high, people will be forced to buy their marijuana on the black market, as seen in states like Minnesota and others.

Knox Medical, the only company that publishes its prices on its website, charges $45 for a 300 mg cartridge, and $90 for a 600 mg cartridge. A half-ounce dropper bottle of oil is $45, and a 1-ounce bottle goes for $90.

Trulieve, Surterra and Modern Health Concepts don’t list their product’s prices online.

Modern Health Concepts said the average price of Haleigh’s Hope oil is 15 cents a milligram, and capsules are 25 cents a milligram.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said her company charges $20 for a vape pen battery and charger, $37 for a pen cartridge and $25 for a vape cup. It charges $60 for a 250 mg bottle of capsules.

When it comes to the active ingredient, Rivers said, “We calculated each 10 mg capsule to be $2.40 each.”

That’s about 24 cents per milligram of active ingredient, she said. The minimum daily dose is 20 milligrams, so each medical marijuana patient is paying a minimum of $4.80 a day, or $144 a month. At 40 milligrams a day, that comes out to $288 a month.

Other dispensary companies say the average dose is closer to 100 milligrams a day, which would come to $720 a month.

Here’s another way of looking at it:

Trulieve charges $240 a gram for medical marijuana.

There are 28.345 grams in an ounce, so an ounce of medical marijuana costs about $6,800.

According to Price of Weed, “A Global Price Index for Marijuana,” pot sells for anywhere from $15 a gram in Winter Haven to $390 an ounce in Miami Beach.

Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.

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