Cannabis Price Index

The Cannabis Price Index is a comprehensive, open-source project designed to track and analyze pricing trends for online cannabis products across the United States. By providing a structured methodology, SQL scripts, and sample datasets, it facilitates a better understanding of pricing dynamics within various cannabis product categories.

Project Overview

This repository serves as a resource for the Cannabis Price Index published at CannabisDealsUS. It includes essential components such as:

Asset	Description
methodology.md	Detailed methodology outlining baseline definitions, the index formula, and rules for data inclusion/exclusion
sql/compute_index.sql	SQL script for calculating the weekly price index at the subcategory level from product snapshots
sample_data/sample_week.csv	Realistic, anonymized sample data for two weeks to support testing and analysis

How It Works

The Cannabis Price Index is calculated weekly through a systematic process:

1. Data Collection: Product snapshots are gathered from various online cannabis retailers across the U.S.
2. Aggregation: Products are grouped by category and subcategory, with effective prices and discounts averaged.
3. Index Calculation: The average price of each subcategory is benchmarked against a fixed baseline week (December 8, 2025) to yield an index value, allowing for easy tracking of pricing trends.

An index value of 100 indicates baseline pricing, with values above 100 reflecting rising prices and values below 100 indicating price decreases.

Example Output

Below is a sample of the index calculation results:

Week	Category	Subcategory	Avg Price	Index Value
2025-12-08	Flower	Pre-Rolls	$18.45	100.00
2025-12-15	Flower	Pre-Rolls	$18.20	98.64
2025-12-22	Flower	Pre-Rolls	$17.85	96.75
2025-12-08	Edibles	Gummies	$24.30	100.00
2025-12-15	Edibles	Gummies	$23.90	98.35
2025-12-22	Edibles	Gummies	$24.80	102.06

These outputs can be effectively visualized through line charts to illustrate distinct trends across product types: for example, a downward trend in Flower prices while Edibles may hold steady or increase.

Practical Applications

This methodology is actively utilized in a production environment, empowering the Cannabis Price Index at CannabisDealsUS to monitor and analyze thousands of products weekly in the online cannabis market.

• Live index: Explore the detailed Cannabis Price Index at cannabisdealsus.com/cannabis-price-index
• Full dataset: Available through Zenodo with monthly updates

The repository presents a valuable opportunity for data analysis and reporting within the cannabis sector, making advanced pricing insights accessible to researchers, analysts, and industry stakeholders.