The map was put together by FloatingSheep, a group that maps and analyses location-specific data. In this case, it took data from the Price of Weed website, which crowd-sources marijuana prices. As Floating Sheep explains, using that data it was pretty easy to create a weed price map:
After cleaning the data to get rid of the outliers, we created a continuous surface using a statistical interpolation technique known as kriging to identify the average variance among price differences through a spherical semivariogram model. To obtain a price for each location show in the map above, an interpolated value was estimated as a weighted average of prices from its twelve neighbouring points.
Gah! Wait, did I say easy? I meant complicated. But either way, the results are kind of amazing. And looking closely, you can actually learn something from them.
OK, yes, if you live in the Dakotas, you are paying too much for pot. Let’s establish that first of all. But that’s not what you can learn. What you can learn is that harsh drug laws have little influence on price or availability.
Look at Kentucky, for example. Kentucky’s pot laws are not at all kind, bra. Nor are Tennessee’s, mang. And yet both have price comparability to northern California where marijuana is more or less mandatory. (Or at least, everyone in San Francisco seems very high to me.) Likewise, it’s less expensive in Texas and Florida. What do all of those spots have in common? Either a lot of marijuana is grown or imported there.
Or check out Minnesota, man. Check it out! Minnesota has decriminalised marijuana. If you have less than an ounce and a half, you just pay a small fine and do no time. And yet the price of marijuana there is very high. I expect that’s because it’s far from any growing or import regions, and because Prince and Bob Mould are snapping up whatever available supply there is.
Simply put, no matter what kind of legal codes you pass, the laws of supply and demand will supersede them. (Sorry, Minnesota.) [FloatingSheep]
Daniel
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 11:23 PMAmerica – paying too much for illegal items.
Australia – Paying too much for everyday living items
Who cares about america – they want to spend their money on marijuana… let them! Down here, we don’t really have a choice.
World’s most expensive movie tickets, games, most expensive broadband, utilities, etc. The list goes on really
Mudze
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 12:07 AMHence the rampant pirating. Well, you know, other reasons are terrible release dates (sometimes no release dates) and crappy customer service, but hey.
At least weed is cheap as hell.
d
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 8:41 AMbut where the hell do you get it? I have been in australia for almost a year and haven’t found any!!! Is there a website with hotspots?
s
Friday, September 2, 2011 at 5:17 PMMarijuana is also way too expensive in Australia. Way worse than in the US.