I don't know about that. For all practical purposes, marijuana is legal in California. All one needs is a ridiculously easy to obtain "prescription", and you can then buy marijuana from one of the hundreds (perhaps a thousand) of dispensaries located throughout CA. But, that has not really reduced the abundance of illicit marijuana sold in the state. The marijuana drug production, distribution and illicit retail sales in California is robust.
Because marijuana's price to weight ratio is so much greater than alcohol, it will always have a black-market, even in the face of absolute legalization. Why? Because people will certainly look to circumvent the licensing and taxation that will surely accompany full-blown legalization. An ounce of marijuana has a retail value between $200 to $500. An ounce of liquor has a retail value of a few dollars. See the difference?
There aren't many still left in America because it's very time consuming to distill liquor. It's very space consuming, and it doesn't have a very good return on investment. Marijuana doesn't require much space. It doesn't require a lot of time and it is ridiculously lucrative, even in states that have partial legalization.
Which completely ignores WHY that ratio exists. BECAUSE IT IS STILL ILLEGAL.
Decriminalize it and the price would drop out the bottom.
Tobacco has become a big ticket smuggling item. Why? Because of the idiotic taxation and over-regulation. This will happen with any "in-demand" item on the market that the government wants to restrict.
Pot is not legal in California. That is why it is still $200 or whatever an ounce. If pot were truly legal in California there would be massive greenhouses growing the stuff. If you tried that now in California, the Feds would be on your ass, even with Obama claiming that he won’t interfere.
Coors has a huge massive plant close to my house, because it is legal for them to have that factory. Imagine what Coors would cost (honestly it should be illegal on its taste alone) if it were reduced to being brewed by a bunch of little rinky dink places that didn’t have the proper equipment to produce it in mass.