$50 per ounce seems high enough to drive lots of potential consumers to the black market.
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.
They levy taxes on things people can already make at home now (beer for one). It works. Most people are lazy enough to let the market do it for them. Look at all the medical marijuana stores--those people could grow their own but they decide to buy instead.
Worst case scenario and everyone grows their own we still aren't spending billions of dollars hunting down, prosecuting and imprisoning people for weed.
Very few recreational potheads grow their own. But they buy from networks of friends, all of which go back to some illicit grow op. That grow op will continue to exist if taxes are too high. It doesn't need any startup costs or anything, because the black market is already running.
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.
$50 for something that passes quality control is more than fair.
+ chances are the stuff will be better than what is out there right now, since corporations who'll make pot their business would need to compete between each other to gain customers.
According to wiki answers 1 ounce of marijuana ranges from 110$ to 500$. In mass production you could probably grow marijuana at something like 1$ a pound, so like cigarettes you would mostly be paying the cost of tax. My guess is it would be a little cheaper than it is now say 65$ an ounce which would limit it's value on the black market.
For comparison 1 ounce is around 2 packs cigarettes which is and ~8$, but I think marijuana has a lower active dose.
FYI, an ounce is a lot of pot. I don't smoke all the time, but when I do I'd class myself as a bit of a heavy user, eg I prefer to get stoned every evening.
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%.
Well, first of all, most people don't smoke marijuana by the ounce lol.
An eighth of pot is currently around $60 on the black market, and legal sellers would probably keep the price around the same to compete. Which means, even with a $50 an ounce tax, assuming prices stay the same, there are huge profits for sellers.
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.
I don't think it's all that high; it's equivalent to about 12.5% of the current BM retail price. I could grow (and have) but it takes months and a commitment to gardening. A legal outlet will be able to make larger wholesale purchases and get a better price on them from growers, more than offsetting the tax.
I think your idea of corporate green cigarettes is deeply misplaced, BTW.
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.