JohnAtl:

Other advantages that could lead consumers to accept higher prices that result from a legalized market include: Brands or distinctions, flavors, aromas, quality control (size & potency), research and development of new products, assurance of no foreign substances & convenience to purchase (location and time of the day). I imagine the market being similar to beers with large brands akin to Miller and Bud light coexisting with microbrews (microharvests?). The larger companies can drive down prices through quantity and produce middle of the road quality while microharvests could survive in smaller markets by charging higher prices for characteristics that distinguish them (ie. Fat Tire, Sweetwater 420). There will be those who are driven by quantity and price while others will pay more for taste and style. I do think that marijuana products will have to be subject to the same health standards as tobacco product (ie filters). Studies will need to be done relating use to lung cancer. Also advertising standards will have to be the same as for tobacco.

I think store bought pot will be like Budweiser while real connoisseurs will always seek out the individual grower with the best product quality/cost ratio. There are probably ten thousand varieties/strains of weed, and a whole range of quality factors that depend on the skill and effort of the grower. And there will be a million plus individual micro-growers, all with a variety of extremely high potency weed, and maybe a side brand of commercial weed so Grandma can catch a buzz to overcome her chemo nausea. I would compare it to micro-brewers, really. And that ought to be the model-- micro-growers along side mass producers of low cost "commercial weed." The trick for Uncle Sugar will be in capturing the micro-growers' tax revenue. They'll miss 90% of it, I'll wager.