At the risk of further encouraging this childish tit-for-tat, I think Naturelover might be slightly underestimating the amount of regulations dispensaries are subjected to. In fact, dispensaries are subject to all the same regulations and oversight that other businesses are. At one dispensary I visit, the owners were tearing out handrails and staircases because they were not up to code. Blackmarketeers are not subject to government regulation or taxation, only interdiction. As I speak, my city council is drafting new regulations for dispensaries in the city limits. The county won't be far behind. I don't think that deregulation is a useful term to describe what is happening, since dispensaries are subject to numerous state, local, county, and federal regulatory regimes, from the health department to the IRS.

Quote Originally Posted by Naturelover
There's absolutely no reason that deregulation of a manufacturing market should cause price increases for the public, unless the system is corrupted and over a period of several years after deregulation few companies end up monopolizing the entire marketplace and conspiring to drive prices up. Deregulation should never lead to an immediate price jump upwards, and the proponents of deregulation of any industry always argue that it will bring the price down, because logically that's the only thing that can happen in the immediate term.

In any case of deregulation of any marketplace, if the producers immediately begin making a higher profit than they were before (which they are in this case, since they can be open about it and thus can serve many more customers - they're getting filthy rich compared to what they're used to, because they've been able to cut out all the middlemen and bring their product straight to a higher number of customers) while the customers recieve higher prices than before, that's always an example of the producers taking advantage of the new rules and of their customers.
Also, what sources do you cite for dispensary profits? I don't doubt that there are some profitable operations out there, but I'm just curious where you're getting your information.

Not trying to be a dick, just want to know more.