Inflation: Putin makes drugs more expensive

Culture Dealer on inflation

“It would be good to prepare for the winter by buying hamsters”

Stand: 17.06.2022 | Reading time: 2 minutes

Almost always in demand: cannabis

Source: AP/Seth Little

Putin’s war against Ukraine is not only making gas, electricity and petrol more expensive – drug prices on the German black market are also rising noticeably. The rate of increase can be quantified – and it has consequences for nightlife. A small poll of dealers.

“I’m noticing that fewer and fewer customers are buying from me,” a dealer tells me on the phone. “This is often not due to the price of the weed, but to the income of the customers. The rich have to pay more attention to their expenses. A doctor can no longer afford weed for 500 euros these days. 250 is in it.”

Inflation hits everyone. Also the market for marijuana. The American rapper Snoop Dogg, for example, has increased the salary of his private “joint spinner”. “Inflation. Salary has gone up!” he wrote on Twitter. Three years ago he said he paid a special employee about $40,000 a year to roll his joints for him.

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In the US, cannabis is legal in some states. But in Germany most drugs are forbidden. It is therefore impossible to carry out an objective, economically accurate analysis of the rising prices. So a little self-research.

The problem with the black market is the rising cost of production. So the mean dealer needs several heat lamps to grow the plants. This means increased power consumption. “On average, the increase is about 25 cents per gram. (Depending on the quality, a gram of marijuana costs between 10 and 14 euros, editor’s note.) But this can also vary depending on the variety. Some need more light, some need less,” says another dealer over the phone. The prices for cultivation and delivery are passed on to the customer. “It would be good to prepare for the winter by buying hamsters. Prices are likely to rise there.”

If you follow this logic further, hard times are ahead for the Berlin party scene: crystal meth, cocaine, speed and ecstasy also need energy to produce them, in principle everything is like baking a cake: an oven needs gas or electricity. With the war between Ukraine and Russia everything is not so simple. Snoop Dogg has already responded: Salaries up! Federal government, what are you doing?