Visiting one of the handful of legal cannabis retailers in downtown Toronto didn’t even cross Jesse Cree’s mind when he decided to spend $50 to replenish his depleted baggie of pot.

This week he went straight to the Harbord St. location of Cannabis and Fine Edibles (CAFE), an illicit operation that has been his chief supplier of pot for about a year now.

“It’s more of a familiarity thing for me,” Cree said of the motivation behind him favouring CAFE. “It’s the place I rely on to get my weed.”

Experts say buyers’ continued reliance on illegal operations is a strong signal of their preference for those retailers and their products, and a direct knock on the inferior quality and higher prices found at licensed sellers.

Prior to legalization last October, there were more than 90 illegal cannabis storefronts in Toronto, dwindling to 36 soon after legalization. Now fewer than 10 remain, city officials confirmed Wednesday.

CAFE’s four Toronto locations have been a target of the city’s clampdown since November, said city spokesperson Lyne Kyle, adding that “since November we’ve issued over 70 charges, not including the ones that were made last week. We’ve barred entry a number of times and they have reopened.”

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Last week at the Harbord location, city enforcement officers seized products, laid charges and stacked large concrete blocks in front of the store to physically bar access to it.

On Tuesday this week, an illuminated “open” sign sat ironically in front of the blocks, which had “#openmarket” written across them in black spray paint. Seated behind two tables, staff accepted payment from customers whose personal details — age and name — were digitally registered on a tablet as the queue of people waiting to be served kept growing. Store staff kept guard over a limited supply kept discreetly in bags nearby.

CAFE and other retailers like it continue to play a cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement, experts say.

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“People like going back to what they know, and/or, they’re lazy,” said industry consultant Mitchell Osak. “They’re loyal to the store. They could be very loyal to a strain that they can’t get in the legal world.”

“There are a lot of complaints that the quality of legal cannabis, not to mention the price of it, is inferior to what you can still get in an illegal dispensary,” said Osak, a partner and cannabis advisory lead at MNP LLP.

Statistics Canada recently released data indicating that the price of legal weed was outpacing that of its illicit counterpart.

The average cost of a gram of cannabis from the illicit market continues to drop as legal prices rise — with authorized retailers charging as much as 80 per cent more, according to an analysis by Statistics Canada.

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The government agency stated earlier this month that the average price of an illegal gram of pot was $5.93 in the second quarter, versus a legal gram of weed, which was $10.65, based on self-submitted quotes.

“The challenge we have in the industry, which will rectify itself over time, is that we don’t have enough stores to satisfy demand and we don’t have enough (variety and quality) product to fill those stores,” Osak said.

During his wait at CAFE, Cree, 30, said he wasn’t concerned about the prospect of enforcement officers swooping in, like they did over the weekend.

“I’ve never liked people telling me what to do,” said Cree, who signed a petition endorsing CAFE’s bid to continue operating. “There are laws allowing us to smoke it, but so many laws preventing us from accessing it.”

Some customers waited two hours or more for their orders to be ready.

Ongoing limited access to legal stores is driving users towards illicit sources, says Caryma Sa’d, a cannabis lawyer who has advocated for and represented landlords and staff swooped up in raids at some of the city’s illegal shops.

CAFE also makes itself more attractive by offering a variety of products, like edibles, which aren’t yet available on the legal market, Sa’d said.

Legal sources “aren’t convenient and necessarily accessible,” Sa’d said. “There is also quality and price. It’s a huge differential.”

After recreational cannabis became legal across Canada last year, aspiring pot merchants in Ontario had to enter a lottery in January to open the first batch of 25 approved cannabis stores in the province. The province is launching a second round of legal cannabis stores, planning for the round of 50 to start opening as early as this coming October.

Operators that are fined are no longer eligible to apply for a legal cannabis retail licence under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.

CAFE’s customers Tuesday were a diverse group. John Pantelosis, 64, was one of a sprinkling of older customers who stood in line.

“I don’t like to government telling me where to buy cannabis,” Pantelosis said. “I like the variety they have here. Some of the legal stores don’t have what I need.”

Correction - July 25, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly included Mitchell Osak’s former title and firm. He is currently a consulting partner who leads MNP’s Cannabis Consulting practice.

With files from The Canadian Press