CANNABIS on a Budget

| by Josh Veal

Whether you use cannabis or not, everybody’s feeling a bit broke lately. Prices for just about everything on Earth have skyrocketed in recent years, and our wallets are hurting. Luckily, cannabis prices have been kept in control by the heated competition from growers and dispensaries across Michigan. Still, you might be feeling like you need to cut back on your canna budget regardless, just to keep affording things like gas and eggs. Regardless of your financial situation, it never hurts to be economical, so here are our tips for saving money while enjoying cannabis.

Buy In Bulk

Once you’ve found a strain or two you know you like, the simplest way to save is buying in bulk! Let’s say a strain sells for $15 an eighth (such as Pharmhouse’s flower), you can typically get an ounce of that for $100 or less, when it would cost $120 if you kept buying eighths. Of course, just make sure you like it enough to finish!

Extreme Couponing

Okay, you don’t actually have to clip coupons, but with a tiny bit of effort, you can become a master of deals and special offers. At the moment, cannabis companies offer nearly constant deals, from happy hour specials to clearance sales to featured brands— and they’re easy to find when you sign up for your favorite dispo’s newsletter.

Shake It Up

Shake (or trim) is the excess cannabis taken from harvest, typically used in producing edibles, vapes and distillates. While it’s not ideal for smoking, it’ll do in a pinch, but our advice is to use it to make your own edibles! That’s an article for another time, but you can find plenty of tutorials online for “decarbing” your shake and making it into cannabutter or oil.

BOWLS, NOT JOINTS

Slim, sexy, disposable—we love joints for a reason. Sadly, they’re possibly the least efficient way to smoke flower out there, and pre-rolls are even more expensive. Switch to a bowl to cut costs, as it’s widely considered to be the best way to get the most out of your bud. The smaller the pipe, the better, as you’re letting less weed burn off in between hits (it also helps psychologically, with portion control). Sidenote: Dry-herb vaporizers are also extremely efficient!

Toke That Roach

If you are smoking joints, don’t toss them the moment they get down to the filter. Smoke that roach (a term for the last little bit of a joint) until there’s nothing left to hit, because there’s still weed in there, and it’s been basking in THC smoke. Consider picking up a “roach clip” to help hold on even when there’s barely anything left.

GO MID (OR LOWER)

If your sophisticated palette can handle it, consider shopping a little less premium than you’re used to. Instead of picking up another $35 eighth, try a strain that costs $20, or even $10! Best case scenario, you realize you actually enjoy “mids,” as many cannabis users do. Worst case scenario, you decide you absolutely can’t smoke that stuff and discover a newfound appreciation for your usual premium product.

Make It Medical

If you need the good stuff but want to pay less, and use cannabis to ease mental or physical symptoms, one great investment (around $60 upfront) is a medical card. With a med card in Michigan, you can purchase more potent products than recreational users, and you don’t have to pay the 10% excise tax on every purchase! Deals on deals on deals.

Get Competitive

We’re not asking you to pit the cannabis shops against each other—they do that themselves through the magic of market forces! That means shops clustered together in the same area have reason to vie for “competitive” pricing, a.k.a. cheap. If you live in the boonies, consider heading to the city and buying bulk to have a nice, affordable stash at home. ■