[gregpilling]

Another reason not mentioned in the article is quality. Domestically produced hydroponically grown marijuana is so much better than the Mexican weed. I live 60 miles from Mexico in Tucson Arizona, we see a lot of it around here. The quality difference is huge - compare your favorite craft brew with Bud Light that has been left in the sun too long.

I had a friend give me an ounce of Mexican weed last year. That is a fair bit of weed. I tried a sample one night, and then gave it back. It wasn't worth keeping around, even for free. I knew I would just never use it, it was typical Mexican ditch weed and my tastes had gone to better things.

So which beer did you want? Sam Adams, or this Miller with a cigarette in it? The Mexican weed is just disgusting now. Only people on a tight budget will use it, not people with a choice; maybe 10% of the users I know. Everyone else gets the good stuff. Light, fluffy with 20 strains to choose from, tested and graded, and you can pick out the individual bud that speaks to you; or compressed brick that smells a little like coffee or grease and has an unknown THC level, unknown origin, unknown anything.

The only positive attribute to the Mexican weed is price.

[noobermin]

Not to nitpick, but right in the article:

>And it's not just price — Mexican growers are facing pressure on quality, too. "The quality of marijuana produced in Mexico and the Caribbean is thought to be inferior to the marijuana produced domestically in the United States or in Canada," the DEA wrote last year in its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment.

They perhaps didn't elaborate on it (from a good and interesting perspective) as you have, but it was mentioned.

[seizethecheese]

Thank you. I hardly ever see comments about the benefits of legalization to casual weed smokers. Maybe we haven't shed the stigma yet, but this isn't just bad for drug lords and for-profit prisons, this is good for millions of consumers!

[such_a_casual]

The true price of weed is like $1/gram.

[xzel]

Depends how its grown. RAND estimated somewhere around "225 per pound for a successful, wellmanaged operation, plus in-kind contribution of labor...". This was done in 2010 and so its a little outdated now but still a great read. http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/working_papers/201...

[Retric]

If your forced to grow it inside a building, under artificial lighting, with heavy security and heavy regulation; then yes it's ~15$ / oz (225 per pound). Cut out that crap and use a field and it's far cheaper.

PS: I don't smoke and have no idea if 'hydroponic' is better for the plant or if it's a proxy for grown in the US and fresh. But, I suspect it's mostly about post processing.

[unprepare]

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.[1]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics

[such_a_casual]

There's 450 grams in a pound. 225/450 = $0.50/gram.

But that number and mine is nonsense. I was being generous in order not to shock anyone. Look up the price to grow crops like corn, cotton, etc. It's < $500/acre. Per acre. When cannabis is grown like every other crop it becomes dirt cheap. Great cannabis does not need to be grown indoors. Great weed is grown outdoors on the west coast all the time.

[humbleMouse]

Make sure you are factoring in the labor cost of hiring trimmers. Trimmers on average can do about a pound/day if they really try...

[such_a_casual]

That would all be done by machines.

[anonbanker]

Under prohibition pricing, our[0] costs (Indoor, organic nutrients) come out to about $17/plant to produce.

0. https://medicalcannab.is

[conceit]

The biggest commercial operations are run by passionless businesses. The hydro homegrow on the other hand hardly qualifies as casual.

[eru]

Who care whether your weed is grown with passion? seizethecheese and gregpilling care about the quality of the product.

[conceit]

Yes, and they appear pretty passionless, too. Weed does that to people. Not that I would care.

In a more serious tone, I was alluding to the Domestically grown weed that casual weed smokers buying from passionless business will never get to see.

Either way, I could have pointed out that quality control is one of the more often noted benefits, in theory.

[eru]

> In a more serious tone, I was alluding to the Domestically grown weed that casual weed smokers buying from passionless business will never get to see.

Are you using `Domestically grown' with a meaning that's different from `grown in the same country as the consumer'?

[conceit]

Yes, I am. Domus means house or home. You know, homegrown. False friend right there. I guess when corporations are people, nations are houses and nationally grown crops may just as well be domestic.

Still stands to reason, as with other industrialized crops, that the selection does still not favor taste over yield, speed and looks, nevermind health factors with regard to the fertilizers and pesticides used. Contrary to what the OP might imply, it's not the best thing since sliced bread. I'm not even going of on the tangent about all natural garening, because the ecosystem has ways to fix itself better than a gardner could treat fungi and all that he can't even see, because then I would sound like a spiritual, paranoid pot head, while agricultural engineering seems amazing, but probably dangerous in the wrong hands.

[conceit]

Since when is the sun worse than indoor lighting?

[rexfm]

It's more about a controlled growing environment. Outdoors there's a 100% higher chance of pollination, which means seeds and spindly buds. Indoors it's much easier to separate male and female plants, and also much more likely to have consistent watering etc which leads to more lush growth

[zamalek]

I personally find that [high quality] outdoor is akin to a beer after work. It helps you wind down after a stressful day. An hour or two later and there are no lingering effects, it's great for a touch of relaxation. I find that I can carry on being productive even while high.

Conversely, indoor tends to be more like sharing a bottle of wine with someone - you're going to get far a stronger kick out of it and it's going to last longer. It also tastes much nicer.

I'm not disputing what you're saying, growing outdoor is cheap (virtually free) and therefore attractive. Typically there is little pride involved and the quality suffers. However, well-grown outdoor fills a niche just like well-grown indoor does. It merely has a bad reputation.

[conceit]

besides the pollination from other farmers, which is probably far from 100%, selection is not any easier indoors, why would it?

[jonknee]

Since advanced indoor grow operations existed. The Sun is better only in price. Indoors you can control all the variables and have a consistently grown product on a schedule. It's far too expensive for most crops, but marijuana isn't most crops.

[imgabe]

The sun comes up and goes down on its own schedule. Indoor lights can be turned on and off as needed to change how and when the plants mature.

[such_a_casual]

It's about quality control. You have more certainty about soil, air, water, light, insects, animals, etc. So the scientific method is more effective.

On a side note: outdoor plants grow much larger, and as such have much larger yields.

[such_a_casual]

I mean, I don't think there's anyone in California smoking weed grown in Mexico. There just wouldn't be any reason to.