What changed is the government is now acting as a cartel for a very small number of companies who are allowed to sell legally. The legal companies are not meeting demand in any way comparable to pre-legalization. Prior to legalization we had a thriving free market the government wasn't getting a cut so there was no incentive for the laws on the books to be enforced. Now there is. The government makes money from weed sales so they have incentive to use force against those who are meeting the needs of the market.
Nothing got safer for the public. Its just now very risky to sell weed. Screw everything about how the government legalized weed in Canada. Its exactly as it was before except now the big companies have the RCMP as their enforcers to use against their competition.