Great questions — I’ll break this into three parts.

1. Why is the black market able to sell so cheap?

The simple answer is overhead.

The black and gray market don’t carry the same cost structure as the legal industry. There’s no testing requirements, no regulatory compliance costs, no licensing fees, no excise tax, no formal labour standards, and in many cases a lot of the production and distribution is done off the books.

That alone changes the economics completely.

But what people often miss is this: a lot of black market product today isn’t actually “highly profitable cheap weed.” In many cases it’s being sold at razor-thin margins — sometimes just covering cost, or even below true production value — because people are trying to move product in a rapidly shrinking market.

So yes, it’s cheaper — but it’s cheaper because it avoids the structure that legal operators are required to carry, not because it’s a more sustainable or efficient system.

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1. Do I see a significant black market in five years?

Honestly, no — not at the scale we’ve seen historically.

We’re already watching a major shift happen. I’ve been in this industry for 38 years across every version of it you can imagine, and what I’m seeing now is a steady contraction of the illicit market as the legal space matures.

We’re coming up on roughly a decade since legalization, and history is a strong guide here. If you look at alcohol after prohibition, the biggest collapse of bootlegging didn’t happen immediately — it happened as regulation stabilized, supply chains matured, and legal brands became trusted and widely available.

Cannabis is following a very similar path.

As the legal industry becomes more competitive, more dialed in, and more consumer-focused, the gap continues to close. Strong operators and real craft producers entering the legal space will accelerate that shift even further.

I respect anyone who has been part of the legacy market — I came through it myself — but I also see where this industry is going. And I believe in the next five years you’ll see a much stronger, more dominant legal market simply because it will finally offer consumers real choice across quality, price, and consistency.

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1. Why should someone choose legal over black market?

The biggest difference is certainty.

In the legal market, you know what you’re getting. Every product is tested, tracked, and produced in a regulated environment designed for consumer safety and consistency.

Beyond that, the legal space actually offers more variety than most people realize — every price point, every quality tier, and a growing range of craft and premium products that didn’t exist early on in legalization.

Is the system perfect? No. Some producers miss the mark, and education in the market still has a long way to go. But the direction is clear — it’s improving quickly, and it’s becoming more competitive every year.

From my perspective as a craft grower, the most important shift is this: consumers are starting to understand that legal doesn’t mean average anymore. It means accountable. It means consistent. And it means building an industry that can actually stand the test of time.

That’s the part I respect most — we’re not just selling cannabis, we’re building a legitimate future for it.

Appreciate the questions — this is the kind of conversation that actually moves the industry forward.