FREE SHIPPING on Orders Over $149 | “SPEED20” for 20% OFF for New Customers 

Marijuana dispensary vs. dealer – which one is cheaper?

marijuana dispensary

Marijuana dispensary vs. dealer – which one is cheaper?

Earn 20 Speed Pass Points by commenting the blog post

Although the legalization of cannabis has led to the rollout of a number of licensed marijuana dispensaries and online stores in Canada, a vast majority of customers are still attached to the old culture of buying weed from the local dealer. As recent reports suggest, there is a fairly large number of Canadians who still buy their pot from the black market street dealers. One of the main reasons behind this is that people usually like to get their weed the same way as they have been doing for years. There are considerations about the prices as well. So, what’s the reality? Is your local marijuana dealer cheaper than a reputed marijuana dispensary? Keep reading this post to know which type of businesses sell weed at a cheaper rate and find out which one is the best option to score from and why.

Weed from dealer or dispensary – which one is cheaper?

The price of marijuana, like all other commodities, is primarily decided by the supply-and-demand condition. While rising demand or shortage of supply can boost up its prices, increased availability has the potential to lower the cost. The cost of weed also varies depending on the quality of the product as well as the geography and the nature of the business. As the latest surveys in both the US and Canada suggest, buying marijuana from a legal brick-and-mortar or online marijuana dispensary is still more expensive than purchasing it from the black market street dealers. High taxes and federal oversight in both countries have pushed up the purchase prices of different marijuana products in the dispensaries.

Some Canadian provinces like Manitoba require the dispensaries to pay an additional 6% Social Responsibility Tax on their total annual revenues along with with the regular federal cannabis excise tax, GST and provincial sales taxes. Moreover, a marijuana dispensary usually has lots of employees engaged at various levels of its operations, which means more people deserve a cut from the sales profit. The street dealers, on the other hand, are absolutely free from these issues. It is solely for these reasons that getting marijuana from your local dealer will cost less than buying it from a licensed dispensary or ordering online.

According to Statistics Canada, one can buy weed online from the local dealer at a price of $6.18 per gram; the same weed will cost them around $10.25 at the licensed marijuana dispensaries.

For David Clement, the North American affairs manager at Consumer Choice Center, ‘The data from Stats Can is troubling, because it shows that the legal market is getting less competitive over time’. To remedy the situation, Clement says, the federal government needs to ‘quickly get rid of the minimum tax amount, and simply tax cannabis on its wholesale value. This would immediately allow for discount products to hit the shelves, which will put downward pressure on prices’. Production regulations should also be changed to increase the efficiency of the industry. Until these reforms are introduced, experts suggest, the legal dispensaries will continue to be expensive and illicit marijuana dealers will keep on thriving.

Cheap price is not all – licensed marijuana dispensaries are better option than street dealers

However, when it comes to buying good quality marijuana, price is not always the only concern. There are other strong factors that inspire a marijuana user to go to a licensed dispensary instead of visiting some illicit dealer at some shadowy street. Here are the reasons why dispensaries, in spite of their low prices, are far better choices than black market street dealers:

• Safe and secure deals

Dispensaries require federal and state licenses to run their businesses. This means buying weed from them is totally legal and safe. There is no fear of running from police raids or getting robbed by the criminals as buying from a shady street dealer often entails. Cannabis dispensaries are modern, well-lit and totally clean businesses that sometimes offer mail order services as well.

• A variety of products to choose from

Usually, your local marijuana dealer is a small, independent business that grows the products on their own. Naturally, they lack the variety of marijuana strains, extracts, cannabinoid derivatives that is available at any marijuana dispensary. A dealer may offer you two or three varieties at most. When it comes to selecting the best cannabis product for you, there are far more options to choose from a dispensary.

• Quality

In the case of the street dealers, there is no way to guarantee the quality of the product they are selling. All the brands sold in the dispensaries, on the other hand, are thoroughly quality-checked and third-party tested. Buying weed from a legal dispensary is therefore always safer than buying it from the black market.

• Professional help

The pharmacists and consultants at the marijuana dispensaries explain the varying THC-CBD contents and terpene profiles of various strains to the customers, help them to come up with the most suited dosage and find the best products to match their unique needs. You can never expect your local street dealer to help you with these services. If you are someone using marijuana for therapeutic purposes or simply a new user, you might want to avoid the dealers and go to the dispensaries instead.

Although buying weed from your local dealer is cheaper than purchasing it from the local marijuana dispensaries, the latter is still a more favorable option. For safety, convenience and quality of products, marijuana users all over the world prefer legal marijuana dispensaries to the traditional illicit weed dealers and are ready to spend more money on it if necessary. With the support for marijuana fast-rising and the social stigma around it declining, more and more online as well as brick-and-mortar marijuana dispensaries will roll out in the coming days. There is a strong belief that with increased competition among the legal stores and an imminent rise in production, prices of weed at the dispensaries will come down significantly in the coming years.

Share this post

Comments (12)

  • JohnMac

    Love ordering from online dispensary’s. Feels like Christmas every time getting it from the mail and opening up all the presents you just received and can’t wait to try them out. First time ordering from speed greens but won’t be the last, they are right up there, if not the best online dispensary I’ve ever ordered from!! Keep up the Great work👍👍

    April 26, 2020 at 6:08 am
  • Chris Potter

    Honestly dispensaries are over priced and I feel like ordering through you guys I’m supporting local business. Keep up the amazing work !!

    April 22, 2020 at 8:57 pm
  • ra4dunbar

    I have completed three purchases and am amazed. Product quality is excellent, the count is excellent and the delivery times are great. I started by going to the local dispensaries and while it was ok, the cost was far greater without any benefits. I no longer feel the need to stand in line only to be told they are sold out. I highly recommend this site for all the right reasons.

    April 9, 2020 at 9:24 am
  • randyc

    I think that buying your buds from a dispensary is by far the better choice than from a dealer. First of all the dispensary carries a much wider selection of flower to choose from as well as the quantities are varied. Buying from a local dealer takes you out of your home in a more dangerous setting and also you can never be sure what you are getting is the product he is telling you that you are getting. No for sure places like SG to get your buds is a much better decision all around. So enjoy the offerings of the dispensary and forget about the dealers.

    April 5, 2020 at 10:01 pm
    • kimkeeran

      i miss the weed i got from my dealer. the quality and price was amazing but now with online mail order sites you know what your getting with the variety and quality of products with it being secure. Speedgreens is the place

      April 16, 2020 at 6:42 pm
  • Cofoxl

    Online dispensarys I find are the greatest, so much selection when it comes to strains, concentrates and edibles. Keep it up speed greens.

    April 2, 2020 at 8:47 pm
  • Monmoncats

    Variety and quality are the most important things to me right now, and I don’t mind paying a few extra bucks for either.

    March 30, 2020 at 11:05 am
  • RafikGhaly

    Online you get better quality and way more variety, only negative is not being able to physically see it first before you buy.

    March 30, 2020 at 6:39 am
  • TerpX

    Love the convienece of online dispensaries. Speed greens is one of the best!

    March 29, 2020 at 3:33 pm
  • geoff8822

    Best selection best prices and best quality! Also the govt store weed is always dry as the Sahara

    March 29, 2020 at 11:00 am
  • heyhey

    gorgeous bud photo for the article. Depends on how close friends you are to the local plug. For price and quality moms are superior to govt and plugs.

    March 28, 2020 at 1:49 pm
    • Turtleyurtle1954

      I just started buying online this past summer and with all the variety and deals you cant go wrong. Sometimes I will buy off people I know if it’s a good deal. But i would never walk into a dispensary with all the taxed overpried weed with stems. Thats why I’m here on this blog!

      April 4, 2020 at 12:40 am

Comments are closed.