EDIT: And either way, you're trying to levy taxes on things people can already grow and distribute themselves. So it turns out that out of tax enforcement they'd have to shut down illegal grow operations anyway, just so some corporation can sell green cigarettes to the mass market. This isn't the legalization we're looking for.
Worst case scenario and everyone grows their own we still aren't spending billions of dollars hunting down, prosecuting and imprisoning people for weed.
With cigarettes there is also a black market, but growing tobacco is harder, the black market is recently established, and it's easy enough to steal cigarettes (e.g. by robbing a cigarette truck).
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime claims in its 2008 World Drug Report that typical US retail prices are 10-15 dollars per gram (approximately $430 per ounce).[76]
So $50/oz doesn't seem very high (ha) when the legalization would bring the price down more than $50.
+ chances are the stuff will be better than what is out there right now, since corporations who'll make pot their business would need to compete between each other to gain customers.
For comparison 1 ounce is around 2 packs cigarettes which is and ~8$, but I think marijuana has a lower active dose.
At the same time, pot is much cheaper than cigarettes for the user, since an ounce would probably last a casual smoker weeks or months.
An ounce would last me about 2 months, that'd be about $350-400 (based on buying a smaller bag once a week). In the Netherlands, a similar/quantity/buying pattern would have been about $250. This unscientific analysis (but with a very large sample size...cough...) suggests the black market premium is about 30-40%.
I think your idea of corporate green cigarettes is deeply misplaced, BTW.
- Such a lively market already exists.
- People can grow their own.