Dispensary prices from state to state aren’t always an apples-to-apples comparison in the cannabis legalization patchwork in the U.S.
Tax structures, licensing caps and the regulatory cost of doing business all play a factor in what an adult-use consumer or medical patient ultimately pays at the cash register. Market maturity is a big one, too.
For example, after Michigan launched adult-use cannabis sales in December 2019, the average retail price was $419 per ounce for dried flower in 2020, according to the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA). In 2025, the average price sank $63 per ounce, or roughly $2.22 per gram, the lowest in the nation.
For more mature cannabis markets, the prevailing trend in 2025 was stabilizing prices that continued to dip slightly to all-time lows.
Here’s how prices in seven mature adult-use markets have trended in the past six years (See further down for price comparisons of newer markets: Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut):
Michigan’s “race to the bottom” took noticeable shape almost immediately in 2021, 2022 and 2023, when the average dispensary price for flower decreased 45.5%, 44% and 28%, respectively. This was largely due to the state’s unlimited license structure that now includes roughly 1,000 cultivation permits, leading to overproduction: The state’s supply grew faster than demand, even though demand has continued to increase each year.
For example, Michigan’s demand for adult-use flower increased 22% from 2024 to 2025 – 92,500 pounds per month to 113,200 pounds per month – yet prices still sank to an all-time low at the end of the year. That’s because more than 1.4 million pounds of flower remained at processors at the end of 2025, according to the CRA.
However, Michigan’s average dispensary prices could increase for the first time in 2026 with the state’s new 24% adult-use cannabis wholesale tax going into effect on Jan. 1. High taxes are often passed down to the consumers.
This means California could soon have the cheapest cannabis flower in the nation, even though it, too, has one of the most burdensome tax structures in the U.S.
California dispensaries, representing the largest cannabis market in the world with just north of $4.2 billion in adult-use sales in 2025, according to the state’s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), reported an all-time low of $62.25 per ounce for flower in November 2025. This was just higher than Michigan’s all-time low of $59.79 per ounce during the same month.
While California’s average retail price per gram was $2.36 in 2025, that was converted for dried flower packaged as an ounce. However, California is the lone state in this report that provides average price breakdowns for dried flower sold in gram packages, as well as other unit sizes, such as eighth, quarter, half and full ounces.
Since it’s more cost-effective to package cannabis in larger quantities, packaging flower in 1-gram units is primarily reserved for top-quality products that command higher prices. For instance, California’s retail average price in 2025 for flower packaged as a gram was $7.30, according to the DCC.
Among the 11 states in this report that regularly report their average flower prices, most report them on a per-gram basis, but those prices are likely also converted from what’s packaged in larger quantities. In Ohio, for example, where the average gram of flower sold for $6.59 at retail in 2025, consumers don’t have access to flower sold in 1-gram packages.
Ohio is a bit odd in that dispensaries sell flower packaged in one-tenth and one-fifth ounces, versus eighth and quarter ounces in most other states. This adds to the fundamentally different price comparison among states under federal prohibition.
Here’s a look at how the average cannabis flower prices trended in four newer adult-use markets in 2024 and 2025:
While it’s easy for Ohioans to look next door to Michigan for lower cannabis prices, the Buckeye State’s adult-use program is barely a year old, and prices will likely continue to come down in the coming years. Ohio also doesn’t have nearly 1,000 cultivation licenses flooding its market with supply: It has 37 licensed cultivators.
Since 1-gram units are uncommon for loose flower sales nationwide, Cannabis Business Times converted average gram prices into average ounce prices for the 11 states in this report.
Entering 2026, here are the average ounce prices at retail for the most recently reported monthly figures in each state:
While Connecticut’s average price for the year in 2025 was higher than in New Jersey and Maryland, Connecticut’s average flower price dipped nearly 26% in the past 12 months, making it a much more competitive market entering 2026.
