In California, the black market is estimated as twice the size of the legal market (1). This is the natural result when you make it excruciatingly difficult to open legal businesses, and impose in some municipalities (including Los Angeles) north of 30% taxes on product with no break given for medical patients who might rely on this for their disease. There is also a lack of enforcement of illegal dispensaries, which contributes to there being at least 2835 illegal dispensaries compared to 873 licensed dispensaries state wide (2).

1. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-14/californ...

2. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-11/californ...