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Have you ever tried to grow tobacco though? I don’t think it is particularly difficult compared to growing any other crops. Curing it just right takes skill, but then again if it was illegal people probably wouldn’t be so picky about having premium quality tobacco, anymore than they were picky about having premium quality alcohol during Prohibition. If pot was legal and a wide variety was for sale at licensed shops, consumer tastes would change and it wouldn’t be long before people wouldn’t want to settle for just any crappy poorly cured buds. In a competitive legal market taste, aroma, smoothness, etc., would be much more important. Harsh chlorophyll laden under-cured product, or harsh, stale, over-dried product wouldn’t sell if people could buy something “tastier” for a similar price.

I agree that a free-market marijuana would be of much higher quality (and lower cost). That’s just the result of competitive forces. However, it would still be easy to get and the end-runs around government taxation would still exist.