Good pot takes more than sunlight, soil, and water 

I read with great interest the letter from Mike Ward (“Medical cannabis should be priced justly,” Aug.20). As a medical cannabis card-holder myself, I also have to deal with the high price of cannabis. Ward’s argument sounds logical, and I would be happy if the price for quality marijuana were to drop to ten dollars an ounce, but that will not happen. Ward stated, “Pot providers have justified the exorbitant price because of risks they take.” That is not the whole story.

What he forgot is all the time and effort that goes into producing the kind of quality chronic he is used to smoking. Maybe it seems like it “probably cost[s] no more than $10 to grow,” but if you are paying “$50 for a small amount” then you are not smoking weed that was carelessly grown. High-potency pot means good (expensive) seeds or clones. It means daily care dealing with fertilizers, ph balance, watering cycles, and pest control. If grown indoors (as most good pot is), high-powered lights are used and the electric bill is sky high. Even after it’s ready to be harvested it has to be dried, trimmed, and cured before it makes it into a pipe.

The laws of capitalism rule marijuana prices. If someone could produce pot for a lower price they would do it and price their competitors out of the market.

Regarding Ward’s wish that pharmacies would fill pot prescriptions: The last people I want handling my pot are the greedy drug companies. These are the companies that have a solid history of producing something for pennies, selling it for as high as they want while they lobby the government to keep competitors out of the market. No thanks.