The pot is too expensive

So after nearly four years, a second medical marijuana dispensary is scheduled to open in New Jersey, this one down in Egg Harbor City.

And while reading an AP article about the new dope store, my “Split Decision” partner L.A. Parker noted a startling number: Medical marijuana costs $400 an ounce.

Which begs the question: Why is the state’s marijuana so expensive? I mean, medicinal pot users need their own Jimmy McMillan to start the “Pot Is Too Damn Expensive Party.”

I mean, for $400 on the street, you could get some primo weed. Some real superb nugs. The jack frost. And other assorted names given to what I used to refer to as “sticky bud.”

Oh yes. I used to smoke weed. It was $25 for an eighth of an ounce of schwag (now, apparently, called “reggie.”) The good stuff? The sticky bud? That was in the $400 range.

And while I don’t know the answer, my best guess is the pot the state is dealing isn’t the sticky bud variety. I mean, is there any way the state’s weed is better than the private label stuff? Can’t be. And yet here are sick people, desperately trying to get on the state’s approved list, willing to pay a $200 fee to just get started, and then $400 an ounce once they’re in. The pot is too damn expensive! I mean, if I needed marijuana for medicinal purposes, am I going to be a schmuck paying $400 an ounce for cruddy weed? No. I’ll either spend less for similar weed or the same for the good stuff.

In short, and again: The pot is too damn expensive!

If only the state would wise up and go the route of Colorado and Washington and just legalize the whole shebang already. According to a Bloomberg piece, those two states are looking at a few billion in tax revenue over the next few years. Imagine what the tax revenue would be here? Nearly 10 percent of the country’s population lives within a threehour drive of Trenton. We’d probably bring in a billion a year in marijuana tax revenue.

Heck, just turn the Drumthwacket into a giant marijuana retail store. Beautiful grounds, gentle rolling hills, no one lives there.