Seeds or no seeds? The answer to that question was often a determining factor for how much a bag of cannabis flower would cost some decades ago.
Pricing is much more nuanced in the present day of state-legalized markets, with consumer demand geared toward potency, flavor and effect as well as other cultivar-specific preferences. And as commercial cannabis markets have become increasingly competitive, prices have continued to fall.
So, what’s the going rate for an average ounce of cannabis flower at licensed dispensaries nowadays: $100, $200, $300?
From $74 in California to $257 in Illinois, and to more than $300 per ounce in New Jersey and Connecticut, the average price for flower at retail depends on market maturity, geography and licensing structures for any given state.
Here’s how prices in seven adult-use markets of various ages have trended in the past five years (see further down for price comparisons of newer markets: Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut):
While the quality of a good is often directly related to its price, the cannabis world plays by a different set of rules under the federal prohibition of interstate commerce. For example, there were likely few people arguing in 2020 that Michigan’s $419 ounces were four times superior to that of $110 ounces in California—or superior at all for that matter.
Since 2020, Michigan’s average retail price for adult-use cannabis flower has dipped 80% to $83.71 per ounce in 2024, according to the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA). This price drop, in large part, is due to changing dynamics in Michigan’s market, including increases in demand, production and dispensary numbers.
At the end of 2021, for example, Michigan’s 2-year-old adult-use market had 577 active grower licenses, 107 processors and 432 dispensaries that were selling 21,500 pounds of cannabis flower per month with 38,000 pounds of flower in retail inventory, according to the CRA.
Fast-forward to today, Michigan’s now 5-year-old adult-use market now has 1,036 active grower licenses, 285 processors and 843 dispensaries that sold 103,000 pounds of cannabis flower to consumers in November with 146,400 pounds of flower in retail inventory.
Amid those market dynamics, Michigan’s average price of $83.71 for an ounce of flower at adult-use retail in 2024 has fallen below that of more mature markets, including Massachusetts ($144.53), Oregon ($106.62) and Colorado ($96.1), according to data from regulatory agencies in those states.
Meanwhile, Illinois’ nearly 5-year-old market, which launched adult-use sales in January 2020—one month after Michigan—still commands a fairly high average flower price of $257.22 per ounce at adult-use retail, according to the state’s Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office (CROO). That represents a 43% price dip from 2020, when the average ounce cost $452.41.
With a less competitive retail landscape than Michigan, however, Illinois has 242 adult-use dispensaries, not to mention a more complex tax structure that not only includes a 7% excise tax at wholesale but a tiered excise tax at retail: 10% on products with less than 35% THC; $25% on products with more than 35% THC; and 20% on infused products.
This means while there are roughly 8.4 dispensaries per 100,000 people in Michigan, there are fewer than 2 dispensaries per 100,000 people in Illinois—one factor that influences competitive pricing between in-state operators.
Among the seven adult-use states in the chart above—which range in maturity from 11 years since a sales launch (Colorado) to four years since a sales launch (Maine)—each one had record low flower prices in 2024. However, the rates of these price dips have slowed significantly.
The same may not be true in the years ahead for newer markets, which often have higher prices from the onset of adult-use sales as cultivators catch up with new demand in the supply chain.
Notably, 10 of 24 adult-use states in the U.S. have commenced dispensary sales since the beginning of 2022, with another two states—Minnesota and Delaware—working toward 2025 retail launches.
Here’s where prices in four newer adult-use markets stood in 2024:
It should be noted that Ohio’s average retail flower price of $231.07 in 2024 may skew low considering it factors in both adult-use and medical sales, according to the state’s Division of Cannabis Control (DCC). Specifically, Ohio’s medical market still accounts for one-third of all cannabis sales four months after the state’s Aug. 6 adult-use sales launch.
Since that launch, however, the Buckeye State’s average price for flower has dipped nearly 21%—from roughly $266 to $210 per ounce—in just four months, according to the DCC. And, like its predecessors, Ohio’s cannabis prices will likely continue to drop as roughly 170 additional dispensary licenses awarded to the state’s existing medical operators will result in new retail locations opening their doors in the coming months, more than doubling the current retail footprint.
In addition, Ohioans living within reasonable driving distance of Michigan can still access adult-use cannabis for nearly a third of the cost across the state border. Michigan’s average flower prices dropped to an all-time low of $71.80 per ounce in November, according to the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency.
This competition from a more mature neighboring market is perhaps one reason why Ohio’s flower prices are significantly lower than Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut, which operate in a region where the main competition for cannabis tourism is Massachusetts—a state where average retail flower prices are roughly double that of Michigan.
Depending on location and market maturity, some state dispensaries charge more than quadruple the price of others on average. Read More
