By Monterey Bud
The sale of marijuana concentrates in the Evergreen State has exploded since October 2014, according to some new research.
The primary focus of the Washington State study was “To (1) assess trends and variation in the market share of product types and potency sold in a legal cannabis retail market, and (2) estimate how potency and purchase quantity influence price variation for cannabis flower.”
For their research, the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) performed a “Secondary analysis of publicly available data from Washington State’s cannabis traceability system spanning July 7, 2014 to September 30, 2016. Descriptive statistics and linear regressions assessed variation and trends in cannabis product variety and potency. Hedonic regressions estimated how purchase quantity and potency influence cannabis flower price variation.”
By assessing approximately 44 million marijuana transactions occurring over a two-year span, researchers at the SSA found the sale of marijuana concentrates now accounted for more than one-fifth of the state’s total sales.
“Traditional cannabis flowers still account for the majority of spending (66.6%), but the market share of extracts for inhalation increased by 145.8% between October 2014 and September 2016, now composing 21.2% of sales. The average THC-level for cannabis extracts is more than triple that for cannabis flowers (68.7% compared to 20.6%). For flower products, there is a statistically significant relationship between price per gram and both THC [coefficient = 0.012; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.011 to 0.013]and CBD [coefficient = 0.017; CI = 0.015 to 0.019]. The estimated discount elasticity is -0.06 [CI = –0.07 to –0.05].”
The study concluded that “In the state of Washington, the legal cannabis market is currently dominated by high-THC cannabis flower, and features growing expenditures on extracts. For cannabis flower, both THC and CBD are associated with higher per-gram prices.”
