“it would still sell like hot cakes at the store. Never underestimate the inherent laziness of the average consumer.”
Sure, but produce is legal to sell in a store. Pot almost certainly won’t be.
I’ve had vegetable gardens many times. They work really well. One difference is I can’t grow a years supply of tomatoes in a 10x10’ bed. Even if I could, preserving and storing them would be issues. None of that applies to cannabis.
Sure, a pot grower could grow a few plants and have a yearly supply, but there are other factors involved. First, even though it's called a weed to grow pot of top quality takes a little bit of work, just like it does to grow any vegetable of top quality. Second, a store would offer variety. Even wine drinkers would get sick of the same exact vintage every day, with maybe a few exceptions. Third, there are plenty of apartment dwellers and other urbanites who just couldn't grow pot wihtout buying hundreds of dollars in indoor growing equipment.
I'm sure plenty of people would grow their own and circumvent the legal market, perhaps even more so than home brewers do now with beer or wine, but there would be millions of people who would just buy it at a store if it were legal.