When marijuana becomes legal in five weeks, will cannabis consumers ditch their dealers and turn to the lawful side of the pot market?

Author Jerry Langton, who spent decades writing books on organized crime in Canada, believes so.

“You may remember Napster which was the first digital music service. It was free and it was safe. Then Apple came up with Itunes and started charging 99 cents a song. Napster died because people wanted to do it the legal way.”

Langton says revenue streams for the smaller gangs pushing pot on the streets will likely take a big hit but marijuana was never big profit for the big organizations like Hells Angels.

“It’s big, its bulky, it’s easy to detect, it’s all over the place. Like I said in one of by books, a coke dealer might drive a Cadillac or a Ferrari, weed dealers usually ride the bus.”

Colorado’s black market is booming since legalization. Even though there are hundreds of recreational pot stores in that state, criminal organizations are now growing weed, smuggling their crop into states where it is still illegal and are selling it for big profit.

That’s not expected to happen here. Canada is already a major exporter of marijuana and is the number one supplier to Australia and Japan. Langton says that will continue business as usual. The domestic dealers are the ones who will suffer and the marijuana void will eventually be filled.

“There’s always a million things they can do, prostitution, illegal gambling, kick backs, pills, meth and steroids is a big one,” said Langton.

According to Statistic Canada we purchased almost $6-billion in weed last year and 90 percent of that was illegal. Langton says there will still be a black market for pot but much smaller.