“Smoking pot has long been a rebellious anti-government activity,’’ he said, “but some of the illegal stuff has pesticides and pot smokers will ultimately want better quality pot.”

The Quebec Cannabis Company, the new provincial marijuana monopoly, has been examining how to sell cannabis, given restrictions that, for example, forbid glamorizing it in marketing or selling it in glass display cases behind a counter.

Mathieu Gaudreault, a spokesman for the company, said customers might be able to at least smell the marijuana, which will be sold in sealed sachets, “as if they were smelling perfume.” Customers will be asked for identification at the entrance to retail stores to prove that they are at least 18 years old, the legal age for buying alcohol and cannabis in Quebec.

At the official stores, one gram will cost about $6; other products will be offered, both at stores and online, with different degrees of potency.

While Canadians will soon be allowed to smoke and sell marijuana with impunity for the first time in 95 years, hundreds of illegal dispensaries have already popped up across the country, underlining the challenges the government and law enforcement will face.

Trees Station, one of many illegal pot dispensaries in Toronto’s bohemian Kensington Market, has been open for two years, selling more than 30 different kinds of marijuana, with names like Pink Cinderella and Organic Charlotte’s Web.