If A) it could legally be produced on a larger scale than is currently allowed, (6 mature plants in most of the state, 75 mature plants in the city of Oakland) andB) it could legally be sold for profit,Then absolutely the cost would come down. NORML has estimated that if it were able to be grown on an industrial level, like lettuce or tomatoes, it would be less than $5 an ounce. Its all basic economics. The only reason the market price is so much higher than the cost of production is due to the risk. Efficiency comes with scale, you can't be very efficient with 6 or even 75 plant crops. The only growers doing it at scale still need to produce and distribute on the black market so there is a large hazard pay fee attached to that. Even if their products end up in the grey or white markets eventually, they have to hide production, processing, and the 1st few stages of distribution, so that brings the price up. Illegality sort of works like artificial scarcity. The growers who don't have to hide it because they only have 6 plants can't get their operations efficient enough at that scale to bring the cost of production down.Mind you if it ever were opened up for large scale commercialization, nearly everyone growing now would be put out of business or relegated to the "micro-brewery" status as the Philip Morrises and RJ Reynolds' opened for business.