Very unlikely scenario. Supply and demand will weed out the inefficient. Prices have dropped substantially in the past three years if you follow the data published by Cannabis Benchmarks published every Friday. $2000 - $3500 /lb was the benchmark circa 2014/2015 and now it’s just another commodity. 800-1200 /lb. rumors in Oregon of 100$ pound prices are the result of oversupply but aren’t sustainable. It’s like digging gold from the ground. There is a fixed cost of cultivation/ extraction.
Everyone back in 2015 thought they’d be Pablo Escobar reaping massive profits. But now it’s priced as a legal commodity - nobody’s getting their inventory seized creating false scarcity and driving up prices. The market will separate the winners from losers and a price equilibrium will be found imho.
Still won’t drop the price to that of tobacco. The infrastructure of cultivation, processing and retail is way too costly for that. You can buy cigarettes at any shop in any city. They aren’t under lock and key. The staff aren’t criminal record screened. The delivery isn’t by armed courier to a retail location that is a hardened facility with security features/ cameras/ distance from a school Etc. Etc
Of course convenience/ grocery stores / gas stations have cameras (who knows if they’re turned on or even real - at a convenience store the only person who cares whether the camera is turned on is the owner and the cops if they get robbed. If a cannabis retailer pulled that stuff they’d lose their business. Check my post today of Oregon cannabis enforcement going in depth this fall to find the cheaters )
But they sell a million other legal products to pad their bottom line. In a scenario where one type of licensed facility must meet specific stringent requirements to sell one particular products that must be a secure facility and tested by an analytical lab like $evio and etc -