What would currently-illegal drugs look like if produced by corporations?

[Xithras]

10. It's not about getting to market first.

Once upon a time the tobacco and alcohol markets were dominated by small producers who only supplied enough for their towns or neighborhoods. While some small craft producers certainly still exist, they're a tiny part of the corporate controlled mass markets today. Why? Volume!

Your local neighborhood pot grower can probaby maintain a few hundred plants tops, and will likely sell it at the current average market rates of $150-$250 an ounce (depending on strain and market region). They NEED to sell it at that cost in order to cover their production costs and still make enough to support themselves, their workers, and their families. RJR and its affiliated farmers can have 100,000 acres of cannabis planted next month if they really wanted, and would make billions selling it at $25 an ounce (one serious study concluded that the production costs of cannabis could be as low as 62 cents per ounce if it were legalized and grown using modern production methods).

Sure, the local guy down the street will probably grow better stuff, but they won't dominate the market for the same reason that your local microbreweries haven't put Coors out of business. The mass produced stuff will be "good enough" for most people, who are really going to have a hard time justifying the massive price disparity. Is it worth it to buy local pot that is four times the quality, if the cost is ten times as high? Many will say yes, but history tells us that most people will say no.

All of the economics suggest that legalized drugs would generally follow the same path as tobacco and alcohol. You'll end up with a handful of massive producers churning out passable product at a very low cost, and a large number of smaller producers crafting higher quality product at a cost premium for more discriminating customers.