pabloesqobar that $57 per ounce was a base line approximation, reality is closer to or a little over 100 per ounce. You will spend more than 77 hrs caring for your plants for 77 days, you have to be a trimming machine to trim that fast, a master grower will be using advanced techniques such as added CO2 to produce a larger yeild (like the 4 lb), and there is more time and money involved in getting the medication to the patient. Labor costs are not part of profit margin, Labor cost cut into profit, non profit still pays for labor. Yes many non profits have volunteers but I do not know one non profit that doesn't have to pay for labor on some level. To comply with the mandate you would have to keep a detailed expense report on the individual medical grow and price the product based on it's individual grow. Now you need an accountant and trust me the accountant will not work for peanuts, and you need an accountant for legal reasons. Outside oversite looks a lot better than a little black book with expenses written in it, especially to a judge.
If you are brave enough and lucky enough to grow outdoors as 420 says, you could provide at a much reduced rate. I do not believe that even an outdoor grow would go much below that $57 range.
Okay, when I go buy pot, how do I know I'm buying pot from a master grower or otherwise? Your scenario also presupposes that every co-op, etc. only use master growers that grow the best pot on the planet using the most cutting edge organic watchamacallit. I don't think that's the case. If an individual co-op agrees amongst its members that they want to have their members spend the most possible on growing to produce the most amazing results, and as a result they all pay more for the product, well, that's their decision I suppose.
"6. Permissible Reimbursements and Allocations: Marijuana grown at a
collective or cooperative for medical purposes may be:
a) Provided free to qualified patients and primary caregivers who are
members of the collective or cooperative;
b) Provided in exchange for services rendered to the entity;
c) Allocated based on fees that are reasonably calculated to cover
overhead costs and operating expenses; or d) Any combination of the above."
I'm fairly confident that legal fees for being arrested for committing a crime cannot be included as overhead. The IRS may take issue with that. I'm also fairly confident that can.i.buz's deal involves a small amount of people. This does not warrant a full time accountant. You maybe could include the cost of hiring an accountant to do your taxes, I don't think my tax guy includes his fee when he calculates my Schedule C. We're talking basic math here. Not the sort of stuff that requires a specialist. The "detailed expense account" is what a business owner does in a small business. That's what I provide my accountant.
I agree it takes some knowledge to grow decent MJ. But it isn't rocket science. Some of it is manual labor, which doesn't fetch a huge wage.
In any event, even with your new figure of $100 an ounce that is still a lot less than what it's going for at all of the dispensaries. I would be stoked if that was the price. Cheers.
i had to purchase pots and soil for 70 plants. i put in about 30 hours a week. when i work i make about $25 an hour. 
