What's a Drug Bust Really Worth?

[Classy@Home]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/01/whats_a_drug_bust_really_worth.php

News that the San Francisco Police Department had seized $11.5 million worth of illegal cannabis in calendar year 2010 set the local sphere of growers, activists, and informed tokers abuzz.

That figure is peanuts compared to the SFPD's overall budget of $445 million, and not that much more than the single haul Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies had on a remote island last year.
Still, speculation lingers: Where did all that pot go?

If SFPD seized 13,500 plants, worth $11.5 million, it must have been quite a payday for the department. One activist even guessed that SFPD had sold the seized buds on the black market.
Relax. SFPD did not seize $11.5 million in cash, nor did they seize $11.5 million worth of packaged, processed, ready-to-be-slung-to-teenagers buds.

Here's why.

An eighth of an ounce of marijuana sells in San Francisco between $35 and $60, depending on the merchant and the quality. But for ease, let's say it's selling for $45. A pound of marijuana will catch between $500 and $2,500 at wholesale in California. Again, for ease, let's say a pound of good bud is worth a (very generous) $2,000.

These market figures are easily verifiable at dispensaries' Web sites and also at the classified listings at *********.com (always a fine read).

The SFPD's narcotics unit uses the following formula to calculate the net worth of marijuana confiscated at a drug bust: A pot plant is worth three ounces of marijuana, and every pound they seized is estimated at $3,000 on the streets, according to Sgt. Mike Andraychak, a department spokesman.

"Since then, the price has gone down," Andraychak said, telling SF Weekly that narcotics officers will update the formula sometime this year, and will continue to adjust it seasonally.

Going by the SFPD's formula, 13,500 plants worth $11.5 million would break down to $831 per plant.

Yet on the growing-room floor, it looks somewhat like this: If you have an indoor plant that produces three ounces of pot, that plant could be worth $1,080 on the street, assuming all three ounces are sold at $45 for every eighth-pound. If every pound is broken up and sold as $45-eighths, then each pound is worth $5,760 -- much higher than what SFPD estimates, but also realistic.

Even if an indoor farmer has a solid harvest, those ounces are sold for $200 or less. And none of that is pure profit. Someone has to pay the electric bill, pay for nutrients, and pay someone to trim it. And there's waste in every crop. When you factor all that in, the profit margin gets even slimmer.

"Your average mediocre grower is going to get one to two ounces per plant, or three to four ounces if they really know what they're doing," said an Oakland-based source deep into the growing business.

Even if SFPD counted only mature plants, the police practice of counting any kind of plant -- mature, immature, healthy or sick -- means that SFPD's three-ounce per plant average is hopelessly high. This sounds fine until you consider that seizure estimates always include immature plants, male plants, hermaphrodite plants and clones -- stuff a self-respecting stoner wouldn't smoke for anything. Moreover, it's stuff that's impossible to smoke.

Point is, there's really no way to know how much exactly the pot seized by SFPD is worth, without knowing if it was top-shelf Sour Diesel, midgrade anonymous indica or powdery- mildewed Mexican brown. And certainly, there's no reason to believe that someone, somewhere has $11.5 million of drug money stashed in a duffel bag.

The math is so fuzzy as to be almost worthless. Yet those numbers are just the same in court, where they have real-life consequences.

 

[Deft]

sold at $45 for every eighth-pound.

Sign me up!

 

[mrktwiz]

hell I get $2,600 a packet right now no problemo????

 

[Anti]

ounces are sold at $45 for an eighth -pound

2 ounces for $45? I'd buy that for a dollar - forty five times!

 

[solabeirtan]

The plants really don't have any Value, till its harvested. Certainly not in Veg. Maybe towards the End, in the last few weeks of Flower. Yet the Finished product is still 30 days out.

Then you have packaging, marketing, advertising, promotions, r&d, Labor, etc ... No room for Profit or Taxes !

 

[zenoonez]

2500 for indoor primo? Sounds like someone is bsing or the bottom fell out of the market.

 

[cannascholar]

Indoor is going for as low as 2k a single pound in Humboldt. Those that are lucky can still get 3-4 if they consign their bud at a club. The outdoor is completely fucking the market.

 

[zenoonez]

2k? thats effing nuts. Thats cheaper than canadian beasters. I wouldn't be letting shit go for 2 k. I would be sitting waiting for the drought just like everyone else.

 

[Rabbi Reefer]

In a shitty economy...and we are ALL experiencing a shitty economy, prices will drop.
Folks would rather make a fast nickle over a slow dime any day.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i know a bunch of indoor guys in oakland and san fran are letting good indoor go for 2500..but it aint moving so if you have cash you can probably get for cheaper...not super top shelf but decent frosty weed like bubba kush, purples, blue dream, basic stuff.

im friends with people at a few clubs around the bay area and the only things that get 3-32 anymore are any kind of good OG kush or name brand shit like headband, strawberry D, cherry pie. one guy with a few packs of cherry pie recently wanted 38, club owner laughed in his face and offered 32 which is still pretty good considering its 2011 and the worst flood in california history...

my friends club already offered me 3200 for my SFV under the table no tax, but i declined...32 is a fair price considering they charge 60 an 8th for it...

 

[thingshappening]

" "Your average mediocre grower is going to get one to two ounces per plant, or three to four ounces if they really know what they're doing," said an Oakland-based source deep into the growing business."

 

[growshopfrank]

The police lie go figure could you see a realistic press release "we busted some knuckle head with 54 mold and mite infested sad excuses for plants with a street value of less than it cost to cart the shit away" that sure wont get their budget increased but if they say they caught "a sophisticated indoor grow op with $44874 street value" ($831 x 54) they look far better and come budget time they need more funding to fight the evil weed its the same shit everywhere

 

[MadBuddhaAbuser]

Indoor is going for as low as 2k a single pound in Humboldt. Those that are lucky can still get 3-4 if they consign their bud at a club. The outdoor is completely fucking the market.

i know a bunch of indoor guys in oakland and san fran are letting good indoor go for 2500..but it aint moving so if you have cash you can probably get for cheaper...not super top shelf but decent frosty weed like bubba kush, purples, blue dream, basic stuff.

im friends with people at a few clubs around the bay area and the only things that get 3-32 anymore are any kind of good OG kush or name brand shit like headband, strawberry D, cherry pie. one guy with a few packs of cherry pie recently wanted 38, club owner laughed in his face and offered 32 which is still pretty good considering its 2011 and the worst flood in california history...

my friends club already offered me 3200 for my SFV under the table no tax, but i declined...32 is a fair price considering they charge 60 an 8th for it...

Damn! i gotta make that trip to cali sooner. Haha

 

[BiG H3rB Tr3E]

drive it down to san diego and you can get 35 per pie no problem

 

[MagicChef]

Up here in Canada eh, prices seem to stay at par. $ 30 1/8, $50-60 1/4, $90-100 for a half, $180-200 for a zip. I'll never pay over $2400 a lb for top grade herb, but seldom pay more than 2k. It is everywhere here...But, the summer outdoor buzz is over, and I cant get my Q.P's for $400 anymore. Them's the breaks.

 

[black_thumb]

$1600 a lb for some good chronic here in the financial deprivatied south east. The state with the most bank closings

 

[MagicChef]

I'd lose on the gas money situation or else I'd be going on a road trip!!!


$1600

 

[ijim]

The DEA has a basic figure of $3500 a pound. Most jurisdictions use the DEA numbers because that is what is used when you show them how much dope you have confiscated and request federal funds so you can continue to bust and seize from cannabis users, dealers and growers. Its all about new cars, swat equipment and so forth.

 

[outinit]

ijim, is that true, that the cops get fed money for every weed bust? I will never understand why they don't pursue meth as vigorously as they do a growers???

 

[paladin420]

ijim, is that true, that the cops get fed money for every weed bust? I will never understand why they don't pursue meth as vigorously as they do a growers???

Meth heads are scary dangerous. We sit on the sofa to stoned to get up for pizza. If you are a piece of shit cop it's simple. Protect an serve their own asses..
Moven Q's for a $1000 LB's for $3500 BTW