I do agree that $50 is way too high these days, but...
a few weeks before July 1, I went into 4 dispensary's just to look around. I looked at an average of 15 jars from each place, so maybe 60 jars total, and there were only 2 jars that looked real good....and of course they were $50/eighth
...with that said, I would much rather spend the extra $15-20 for something I enjoyed twice as much. I compare it to going to the liquor store. I have the option to buy a $3 40 oz of Miller Ginuine Draft, or a $9 6-pack of Dales Pale Ale...same with organic produce from the grocery store
Now, hell will freeze over before all beer is $5/6-pack....and same goes for quality grown cannabis
Not sure how old you are, but I remember in the mid to late 90's microbreweries became more popular and small breweries like O'Dells, New Belgium, Avery, Oscar Blues, etc... went from very small systems to much larger systems. Most of these breweries were not capable of maintaining their previous standards of quality and it took them a while to figure out how to brew GOOD beer in larger quantities. O'Dells used to just package their brew in kegs, when they switched to a larger system and started producing 6 packs they really sucked for a while.
These days, breweries don't survive unless they produce a top quality product, and the differences between microbreweries are just a question of taste and personal preference rather than any real differences in quality between brands. MMJ will be like that eventually... BUT it takes time for the customer to become educated AND for the producers to get their systems down. I have no doubt that in the near future, maybe a few years to a decade from now, the only dispensaries that survive will do so because they grow top quality mmj.
Just like microbrews, in the mid '90's you could go into Liquor Mart and buy HORRIBLE, INCONSISTENT product from many breweries... These days, select a random 6 pack in the 8-12 dollar range from Liquor Mart and you'd be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that isn't top quality beer.
The fact is, most people have NO EXPERIENCE growing large mmj crops and those that do many times don't know how to grow TOP QUALITY mmj. It's going to take people a little while to figure it out... but don't think that a 100kW garden can't produce top quality mmj like your 4kW closet can. You will be proven WRONG soon enough... as long as the DEA doesn't shut it all down. :sweating
Since this thread popped up, I want to point out that I no longer grow for BMMD and can't vouch for them or their products any longer. I can't say more about it on the netz... but I got seriously fucked, my ass is still sore.
