Cities With the Cheapest and Most Expensive Marijuana

By Samuel GarnerDrug Legalization Economics

Which Cities Have the Cheapest and Most Expensive Marijuana?

A German company, ABCD Agency, has developed a global marijuana price index. The company’s experts compiled a ranking of cities with the most expensive and cheapest marijuana for 2018. Their research used survey results and the United Nations World Drug Report.

Top 10 Cities With the Most Expensive Marijuana (Price in Rubles per 1 Gram):

  1. Tokyo, Japan (2,132)
  2. Seoul, South Korea (2,117)
  3. Kyoto, Japan (1,935)
  4. Hong Kong, China (1,794)
  5. Bangkok, Thailand (1,620)
  6. Dublin, Ireland (1,412)
  7. Tallinn, Estonia (1,370)
  8. Shanghai, China (1,359)
  9. Beijing, China (1,340)
  10. Oslo, Norway (1,249)

Top 10 Cities With the Cheapest Marijuana (Price in Rubles per 1 Gram):

  1. Quito, Ecuador (87)
  2. Bogotá, Colombia (144)
  3. Asunción, Paraguay (145)
  4. Jakarta, Indonesia (247)
  5. Panama City, Panama (251)
  6. Johannesburg, South Africa (262)
  7. Montevideo, Uruguay (271)
  8. Astana, Kazakhstan (275)
  9. Antwerp, Belgium (280)
  10. New Delhi, India (286)

Minsk ranks 15th among cities with the most expensive marijuana (1,031 rubles), Moscow is in 27th place (773 rubles), and Kyiv is 102nd (392 rubles). In Amsterdam, marijuana is relatively inexpensive by European standards—515 rubles. In the United States, the cheapest marijuana can be found in Seattle (485 rubles), while the most expensive is in Washington, D.C. (1,180 rubles).

Cities With the Highest Marijuana Consumption in 2018 (Weight in Tons):

  1. New York, USA (77.44)
  2. Karachi, Pakistan (41.95)
  3. New Delhi, India (38.26)
  4. Los Angeles, USA (36.06)
  5. Cairo, Egypt (32.59)
  6. Mumbai, India (32.38)
  7. London, UK (31.4)
  8. Chicago, USA (24.54)
  9. Moscow, Russia (22.87)
  10. Toronto, Canada (22.75)

Moscow ranked seventh among cities that could receive the highest tax revenues from legal marijuana sales. To calculate this, ABCD Agency experts used marijuana prices, cigarette taxes, and consumption volumes. The resulting list (annual tax revenue in rubles):

  1. Cairo, Egypt (25.1 billion)
  2. New York, USA (23.1 billion)
  3. London, UK (15.5 billion)
  4. Sydney, Australia (9 billion)
  5. Karachi, Pakistan (8.8 billion)
  6. Melbourne, Australia (8.7 billion)
  7. Moscow, Russia (8.4 billion)
  8. Toronto, Canada (8.1 billion)
  9. Chicago, USA (7.8 billion)
  10. Berlin, Germany (7.5 billion)

The Russian budget could receive billions of rubles annually in tax revenue from marijuana sales. In 2017, tobacco tax revenue amounted to 510 billion rubles. Based on ABCD Agency’s data and Russia’s population, it can be estimated that creating a legal marijuana market could bring about 84 billion rubles to the budget if the excise tax on marijuana matches that of tobacco products.

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