Economic analysis of drug transaction ‘cycles’ described by incarcerated UK drug dealers

Caulkins, Jonathan P.; Gurga, Benjamin; Little, Christopher A. J. L.

doi:10.1080/17440570902783889

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Similar to previous studies, retail prices exhibited substantial ‘quantity discounts’, in which larger quantities of DH are less expensive per gram . In the current study, LCRs offered similar quantity discounts to ICRs.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation

Mahamad

Wadsworth

Rynard

et al. 2020

Drug and Alcohol Review

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Introduction and Aims. There is little objective market data on the price or potency of legal and illegal cannabis products following recreational cannabis legalisation. Design and Methods. In the 2 months post-legalisation in Canada (November-December 2018), legal and illegal cannabis retailers were identified from government lists and online directories. The store location, price and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol levels of dried herb and cannabis cookies were collected from retailer websites or Weedmaps. Results. We identified 185 legal retailers (22 online stores, 163 storefronts; 65 government-run stores, 120 private stores) and 944 illegal retailers (791 delivery-only services, 157 storefronts). Relative to legal dried herb, illegal dried herb was lower in price (1 g: $10.23 vs. $11.08, In the 2 months post-legalisation, illegal cannabis was less expensive, with higher labelled THC content than legal cannabis, although the scope of these differences was more modest than estimates from other crowdsourced and self-reported data. Direct monitoring of cannabis price and potency from legal and illegal retailers is needed to examine the impact of legalisation over time. [Mahamad S, Wadsworth E, Rynard V, Goodman S, Hammond D. Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation. Drug Alcohol Rev 2020;39: [337][338][339][340][341][342][343][344][345][346]

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation

Mahamad

Wadsworth

Rynard

et al. 2020

Drug and Alcohol Review

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“…This relationship was observed in U.S. data by and has been seen subsequently elsewhere, e.g. Australia (Clements, 2006) and the U.K. (Caulkins, Gurga, and Little, 2009). Theoretical justification of this functional form was provided by Crane, Rivolo and Comfort (1997) in terms of fractal geometry and by in behavioural terms, with dealers finding the distribution network branching factor that strikes the optimal balance between profits and enforcement risk.…”

Section: Some Background On Drug Price Monitoringsupporting

confidence: 55%

Understanding illicit drug markets, supply-reduction efforts, and drug-related crime in the European Union

Kilmer¹,

Hoorens²

2010

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“…Some variation stems from quantity discounts, which have been studied in markets for illicit drugs [45–47]. Figure 5A presents box-whisker plots for the tax-inclusive price per gram separately by purchase size category.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in cannabis potency and prices in a newly legal market: evidence from 30 million cannabis sales in Washington state

et al. 2017

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Aims 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. Design 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. Setting Washington State, USA. Participants (1) 44,482,176 million cannabis purchases, including (2) 31,052,123 cannabis flower purchases after trimming price and quantity outliers. Measurements Primary outcome measures were (1) monthly expenditures on cannabis, total delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration, and cannabidiol (CBD) concentration by product type; and (2) excise-tax-inclusive price per gram of cannabis flower. Key covariates for the hedonic price regressions included quantity purchased, THC, and CBD. Findings 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]. Conclusions In the state of Washington, USA, 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, and there are small but significant quantity discounts.

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Economic analysis of drug transaction ‘cycles’ described by incarcerated UK drug dealers

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation

Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation

Understanding illicit drug markets, supply-reduction efforts, and drug-related crime in the European Union

Variation in cannabis potency and prices in a newly legal market: evidence from 30 million cannabis sales in Washington state

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