Living Cheap? Everyone Still Wants Good Weed

Marijuana is a plant that comes in different strains that boast different strengths, as well as different calibers ranging from side-of-the road bush weed, to crystal-heavy, strong-smelling buds. While not everyone in the world can afford the price point of ‘good weed’, as long as a person can, they’re going to get that over something more basic. Yup, even including those who prefer living cheap, everyone still wants good weed.

Let’s be honest, everyone wants good weed in life, and as long as its available, most of us will spend the money, no matter how minimalistic we are. Check out The THC Weekly Newsletter for all the latest and most important news and industry stories, and get access to some really great deals on flowers, vapes, edibles, and many other cannabis products. We’re offering great savings for Delta 8, Delta 9 THC, Delta-10 THC, THCO, THCV, THCP & HHC products, among others. Go to our “Best-of” lists, to find everything we have on offer!

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Different calibers of weed

Everyone wants good weed, but what does that mean in terms of terminology? We’ve all heard the terms. Said by our friends, heard from characters in movies, and even listed within descriptions of products. Sure you can say, ‘that’s some good weed’, or ‘that’s some low-quality bud’, but the slang words to determine these things are what are heard more commonly.

When it’s really good, is can be called ‘chronic’, ‘dank’, ‘kind bud’, ‘nug’, or if in a place like Mexico, ‘sinsemilla’ which translates to ‘no seeds’, meaning a higher caliber of weed. Mexico is a lower income country than the States, and operates off of generally lower cost items.

Therefore, the average person in Mexico can’t access the standard ‘dank’ weed of the US, and other parts of the world, making a simple lack of seeds denote some decent ‘chronic’ for the country. Other words like ‘skunk’, ‘ganja’, ‘hydro’, and ‘kief’, also generally refer to good quality cannabis.

Not all weed is grown in nice indoor establishments, or even in organized outdoor grow-ops. Some of it really does grow in a true weed-like form by the side of the road. In fact, the terms ‘weed’ and ‘grass’ came to be because of the ubiquitous nature of the plant in some areas, growing everywhere it can sprout up, like other common weeds. Think dandelions, and crabgrass. Well, in some places, that’s marijuana too. Terms to describe this caliber of weed include ‘ditch weed’, ‘bush weed’ or simply ‘feral hemp’ or ‘feral cannabis’, but the latter represent more official language.

The term ‘ditch weed’ doubles as both weed grown wildly, and weed of a lower caliber. This is because most weed growing by the side of the road is not the best of quality, so the two tend to go together. Another slang word for low-quality cannabis that I’ve never heard used, but which likely was popular around 1970, is the term ‘Nixon’. In fact, this term was specifically used to denote when bad weed is being sold as good weed. Then there’s general low quality weed.

Names to denote lower-quality cannabis include ‘schwag’, ‘ragweed’, ‘shake’, ‘stems’, ‘sticks’, ‘dirt grass’, ‘ghetto weed’, and ‘brown’. There are, of course, a bunch of other names for these categories, some that are specific to certain parts of the world, and some that were more relevant in a specific time period.

Cannabis price points

There is no specific guide book on this. There’s no ledger where one can look up exactly what a specific quality of cannabis should cost. Different countries have different economies, that allow for different standards among citizens, and sometimes issues like supply and demand can greatly change prices, with high demand and low supply leading to increased prices that don’t always reflect the quality of the product. Conversely, an overabundance of product can sometimes mean lower prices.

Having said all that, in my experience, there are standard price points that are relevant globally, and which generally translate in a stable way across countries and currencies. This won’t account for supply/demand issues which can always throw a kink in things, but it does apply to the general cannabis trade, as far as I can see.

About 10-12 years ago, I used to religiously pay about $50 per 1/8^th of good weed on the East coast. At that time, the going price on the West coast was about $10-15 dollars cheaper, likely because that’s where a lot of it was being grown, making for much more supply in the area. These prices have not substantially changed over the years, nor had they changed for the 10-15 years I had been buying weed prior to that time. A good strain can always cost a little more, a slightly weaker one might be a bit less. And buying in bulk can come with its own deals depending on location.

In the last 10-12 years, the world has drastically changed with recreational markets opening up. Even this hasn’t done much to change black market prices, although taxes instituted in dispensaries can often make the product cost more than that standard and generally unchanging black market price point. I paid over $60 for an 1/8^th from a Boston dispensary, and it was one of the cheaper options (dispensaries won’t ever have low quality weed).

And this price point can be seen around the world. In England I paid about £8-10 per gram, making for approximately £35 pounds per 8^th. In Europe it was closer to €10, making for an 1/8^th of about the same amount. When I was in Israel, the price was high for many years due to bad supply issues, but with the advent of Telegram groups, the price dropped significantly to match the standard. The last time I was there, I was paying about 50-70 shekel a gram, which translates to the same general price point, although even at that time, for very good stuff, the price was a bit higher.

Right now in Mexico, where things are cheaper, weed can be gotten very cheap in comparison to the States. But remember all those words for bad weed? Well, they apply substantially here. Sure, the weed is nice and cheap, but it’ll never be good quality. Though everyone wants good weed in life, ‘good’ can certainly be relevant to the economy at hand. If you do want to get high-grade quality in this country, the price goes right back up to standard US prices, although sometimes it can be just a bit cheaper, depending on whether it’s being trafficked down from America, or grown indoors in Mexico.

How cheap is it here? I can buy an ounce for 400 pesos (about $20.) Even an ounce of about 1000 pesos ($50) is considered good among locals, even though it’s still rough compared to US weed. With more Americans crossing the border, and an expanding global cannabis market, Mexicans have begun to want better weed, and better options are easier and easier to get.

Even when living cheap, everyone wants good weed

I’m a minimalist, I admit that. I don’t care much for name brand clothing, I don’t need to live in the ritziest apartment, and my phone is usually an older model. I’m not a cheap person, I just don’t feel the need to live extravagantly, even if/when I can afford to. But I always smoke good weed. And even in my brokest points of life, I made sure to scrape enough together to buy the good stuff. In fact, if I didn’t have enough money for the good stuff, I was actually happier not smoking, or scraping resin off a pipe (hey, we’ve all done it, no judgements).

It took me years to see low-grade weed when living in the States. I started smoking in college, and for the entirety of my time in university, I never once saw anything low-grade. And we were college kids at a public university. It’s not like we were made of money. Most of us were going to school full time and then working for pocket change, and to pay bills. And yet even our broke college kid culture didn’t lead to smoking bad weed.

I remember having consistent access to some of the best stuff I ever smoked during that time. Bags of pungent, perfectly shaped nugs covered in bright orange hairs, was the norm, even though the rest of our lives at the time resembled something more along the lines of poverty.

It was only after college that I was introduced to ghetto weed. I was so confused by the bag of sticks, stems, and seeds, that I thought it was a joke at first. I couldn’t believe this was the same plant I had been getting completely wacked on in college. I made a point of not buying it again, and didn’t come into contact with such low quality herb until I was in Israel, where hash was more prevalent at the time, with a shortage in weed supply.

When I came to Mexico, I realized the local population could never afford the same prices. Even bad weed can come in different levels, and when I gave a South African guy some of my bad, but not horrible, stuff, he seemed to think it was awesome weed. South Africa has a weak currency compared to the other places I have been, and much like Mexico, this means the standard quality is lower, along with prices. If someone in South Africa wanted to get the good stuff, they’d have to pay the higher price point, or grow it themselves.

Yup, everyone wants good weed

Truth is, so long as there’s access and ability, literally no one is going to pick the cheaper option. We all have our preferences on the products that we’ll put out more money for to obtain the quality version, and places where we’re willing to spend less for lesser quality. I never needed the highest shelf alcohol, or the highest thread count sheets. I’m willing to travel by bus to limit costs on a trip, and I have the lesser Costco membership. I’ll go to a cheaper restaurant instead of the fanciest, and take advantage of deals for lower cost products. But so long as I can, I never buy cheap weed.

It seems that so long as accessibility is there, and the price point is not such that it makes it impossible, everyone, whether an extravagant liver, or a minimalist, wants good weed. Now, I’m not saying that this means we all go full top shelf, but we all make sure to be on the higher end. And this seems to be a general truth of life. I don’t know of anyone who chooses cheap weed because they want to cut costs, they’ll usually just smoke less of the good stuff to make it last longer in my experience, or mix it with tobacco for the same purpose.

To be fair, I don’t know many people that won’t buy the best version of a drug so long as they can afford it. But since drugs like opioids, cocaine, and meth are also associated with addictions, hard-core users might find themselves in situations where whatever they can find, goes. As weed is not a drug that causes such addictions – no matter how many smear campaigns say it will, this issue is in contrast to weed-smoking, where there isn’t a real addiction forcing users into using lower quality items.

Conclusion

We all make choices in life about how to spend our money. One of the more consistent choices that I see people making is to buy good weed. So whether a person is a minimalist, on a budget, or drowning in cash, so long as its available, everyone wants good weed.

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Disclaimer: Hi, I’m a researcher and writer. I’m not a doctor, lawyer, or businessperson. All information in my articles is sourced and referenced, and all opinions stated are mine. I am not giving anyone advise, and though I am more than happy to discuss topics, should someone have a further question or concern, they should seek guidance from a relevant professional.