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Cannabis has been legal for a year, but 82 per cent of what Quebecers smoked still came from the black market. Why were people going underground when they had a perfectly legal option?

To find out, the Montreal Gazette spoke to four everyday pot smokers who buy on the sly. They listed fast home delivery, no lineups, anonymity and better prices among their reasons for taking the illegal route.

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Approximately 150 tons of cannabis was consumed in Quebec in 2017, according to SQDC president and director Jean-François Bergeron in a speech last week. Yet in its first year of operations, the Société québécoise du Cannabis has sold just 27 tons.

That means 123 tons of weed were sold illegally here over the past 12 months, assuming those 2017 numbers from Statistics Canada hold.

“If it’s not SQDC, it’s not legal,” Bergeron said.

He is optimistic the SQDC can take a bigger chunk away from the illegal market, noting that after a difficult start due to supply problems, the government-run operation has seen a significant upswing in business. As the SQDC approaches its one-year anniversary on Thursday, he estimated it is now selling about 30 per cent of all the pot consumed in Quebec.