Well they won't be after legalization.
..and the Zen Master says, "we'll see".
But is that what you want, a few large commercial growers controlling the industry?
If a tax is the carrot, I want the stick.
Think about this:
Say a grower has a good 10 week strain --pretty common. Under 'regulate and tax' his product has to be tax-stamped like any other commodity and thrown in with everyone else's before it goes to a "legal" bulk buyer like a dispensary. So if the strain he grows takes 10 weeks to fully mature, expect the last 10/14/17 days to be ripening. At 8 weeks it weighs the same as it will at 10 weeks. Only a well-trained eye could tell the difference. What incentive does any grower have to produce mature weed? He won't get paid more (there will be a traded price like wheat or corn or soybeans). Even if the buyer wanted to pay more, how would they set the value in a market where one's own personal taste determines quality? For the grower it is much better to save the 2-3 weeks and produce an extra crop over 12 months. The bulk buyer doesn't care, he ain't smoking it. And the consumer doesn't have any other choice, unless he wants to buy off the street, tax free.
What happens when the rich commercial growers can't compete in quality with the 'farmers market'? Do you think big-business will roll over or set industry 'standards' that squeeze out the little guy?
We eat tomatoes that were picked green a month ago and gas-treated. We eat bananas that were picked green, floated half way across the globe, and refrigerated until 'ripe'. What in the world --excuse me, the "real world"-- makes you think cannabis will get treated any different by the suits that will take over once the government, in all its wisdom, "regulates" the market?
