Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
It’s not hyperbole to say that Vermont weed is twice as expensive as it is in Massachusetts.
On average, a gram of weed sold in Vermont costs $9.59, according to data from the state’s Cannabis Control Board. Drive across the border, and a gram of Massachusetts weed averages just $3.87, that state’s Cannabis Control Commission reports.
Turns out, the price difference is by design. Vermont state lawmakers intentionally created a market that favors small, artisan businesses and cuts out large-scale growers. Without these big corporations, supply hasn’t ballooned enough to allow for bargain prices. At the same time, a limited number of dispensaries and hundreds of small-scale growers has left the state with a saturated market.
Massachusetts, where weed is grown on a larger scale, has a market flooded with marijuana, and the prices there have gone down as a result. But while inexpensive weed may be good for Massachusetts consumers, it’s having negative effects on the state’s marijuana suppliers, state officials say.
Now, legislation has started to lay the groundwork for interstate commerce, a practice that’s currently illegal. This could shift the landscape, according to Vermont officials, but there’s no telling how long real legalization efforts could take.
“There may be pathways towards at least inching in the direction of interstate commerce,” said James Pepper, the chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board.
Vermont’s craft cannabis marketplace
When Vermont lawmakers legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, they chose a model befitting the state’s homegrown ethos. They didn’t want large-scale cultivators to crowd out the small businesses that are a backbone to the state’s economy.
“This was a major sticking point with the legislature,” Pepper said. “They really wanted to have a craft industry that’s akin to our maple syrup, cheese and beer industry, and not dominated by large multi-state operators.”
Since the retail market opened in 2022, the cannabis industry has boomed. According to control board data, the state is home to 110 retailers and 322 cultivators, and this year, has collected more than $8 million dollars in excise tax revenue through May 2026. The state hasn’t brought in less than $1.5 million dollars per month from cannabis taxes since February 2024.
But the state has put limitations on how its market operates. For one, the state uses an “opt-in” rule, which requires townspeople to vote, via ballot, on whether to allow cannabis retailers to operate within their borders. Fewer than one-third of Vermont municipalities have opted in to allowing dispensaries.
The state also regulates the size of marijuana grow operations via a tier system. The vast majority of the state’s 322 licensed cultivators are in either tier one or two, which range from 1,000 to 2,500 square feet of canopy. Vermont’s largest grow operations, tier five, can be up to 20,000 square feet of outdoor canopy. In Massachusetts, the largest tier is capped at 100,000 square feet.
With these restrictions, Vermont does not produce enough cannabis to make its prices as low as in Massachusetts.
“You can have basement prices for cannabis if you grow in 100,000 square foot warehouses,” Pepper said.
Quantity trumps quality in Massachusetts
In 2016, Massachusetts, along with Maine, became the first states on the East Coast to legalize recreational marijuana. It would be another four years before Vermont’s market opened. But market age doesn’t tell the whole story. The structure of the market also plays a crucial role.
Massachusetts’ cannabis law, which was passed via referendum, didn’t limit the number of grow operations that can be licensed in the state, though the state has since paused accepting applications. The law says each grower can hold no more than three licenses and grow no more than 100,000 square feet of canopy.
When the market opened in late 2018, large-scale operators rushed in.
“Massachusetts had no cap. As an individual I couldn’t have more than 100,000 square feet of canopy (cannabis plant) growth, but that’s pretty big,” said Jon Napoli, owner of the Hempest, a dispensary in Northampton Mass. He also owns Vangarden, a grow operation in Leicester.
The law also says a town must vote to opt-out if residents don’t want a dispensary. Otherwise, it is legal to open one anywhere in the state, so long as the establishment follows local zoning laws, according to the Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission. This arrangement made it easy for dispensaries to spread statewide.
Massachusetts’ large population, which is 11 times that of Vermont’s, and more favorable regulatory structure enticed investors from corporations both in- and out of state. This led to the construction of massive grow operations, which created a saturated wholesale cannabis market with incredibly low prices, Napoli said.
“Massachusetts probably was a much more attractive market to get into,” Napoli said, referring to multi-state weed operations. “A lot of people just rushed to get into Massachusetts, and lessons were learned here.”
Multi-state operators alone don’t drive down the price, but they are part of the large-scale corporate system that has flooded the market with cannabis and driven prices so low. Massachusetts is home to nine of them, according to data from MJBiz Daily, whereas Vermont has none. The multi-state company CeresMed operated in Vermont when the market first opened. But in December 2024, the company announced it would be closing down its dispensaries in Brattleboro and Burlington.
Napoli’s businesses like his are committed to supporting local growers and combatting what the Hempest’s website describes as “corporate cannabis” that is “invading Massachusetts.”
“We’re fans of small businesses,” Napoli said. “We think that small businesses are more responsive to the local community.”
Growers struggle in both states
While lower prices in Massachusetts benefit consumers, they make it harder for growers to turn a profit on their yields.
The state’s control commission froze cultivation licensing on June 11 to reassess and develop an accurate response. During the commission’s June 11 meeting where the freeze was approved, chairman Christopher Harding said the pause would allow them to examine other states’ markets for possible solutions.
“There are issues out there. There are businesses that are struggling across the supply chain. This would give us the opportunity to go away and find information from other jurisdictions,” Harding said during the meeting.
Vermont’s small-scale cannabis economy might not produce lower prices, but it does produce better products, according to former lieutenant governor and lawmaker David Zuckerman, who introduced cannabis-related legislation.
“Whatever we produce in Vermont, it’s not massive industrial scale, but there’s a quality difference,” Zuckerman said.
However, Vermont finds itself with its own saturated market. Hundreds of small growers must compete for shelf space at a limited number of dispensaries, leading the control board to recently cease issuing cultivation and retail licenses, according to Pepper, the control board chair.
“This isn’t a traditional market where, if Ben and Jerry’s make too much ice cream, they can find alternative markets,” Pepper said. “There’s a finite demand for Vermont-grown cannabis.”
The board is looking into avenues to extend the legal cannabis market to areas of the state without dispensaries, in order to ease the cultivation market saturation, Pepper said.
The potential for interstate commerce
While both states must navigate the roadblocks in their markets individually, the future of their weed economies may be interconnected.
According to Pepper, a bill signed by Gov. Phil Scott last month lays the groundwork to allow cannabis to be sold across state lines. While the plant remains federally illegal, the bill describes several scenarios that would allow Scott to enter an interstate commerce compact with another state.
The triggers include the U.S. Department of Justice deciding to legalize interstate cannabis commerce or deprioritize prosecuting such cases. Another would be if the feds prohibit spending on enforcement of interstate cannabis sales. And the last is if the Vermont attorney general determines that the risk of federal prosecution is low enough to allow the practice, the bill says.
Compared to other states, Vermont has different tax laws and caps on the allowable amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol in cannabis products, not to mention the price discrepancies. A deal would have to be beneficial for Vermont growers and would require careful negotiation, according to Pepper.
“If we have $4 (per) gram weed coming in from Massachusetts, it’s hard for folks to compete with that,” Pepper said.
Meantime, Pepper says Vermont weed will probably continue to be pricey. With such a focus on artisan craftsmanship, the state won’t see the same mass production that has made prices so low in its southern neighbor.
But that doesn’t mean prices will never go down. The market is still young, and Pepper says cultivators are getting more efficient by moving grow operations inside, where they can harvest four or five times as much in a year.
“There are indicators that the price of wholesale cannabis is going down and will continue to go down,” Pepper said. “But will we ever match Massachusetts? I doubt it.”