Welcome, we have all heard or said something about this. It's an issue that comes up when the topic of when legalized how will be. People start arguing about pricing, ect... it leads to comparisons. So here are why they are different things all together. First off many similarities. they both will grow anywhere, they seem to grow roughly the same size, average plants yield about the same with tobacco getting about 4-5 oz. Differences: It takes 2-3 tobacco plants to make a carton of cigarettes, which means to do it for profit you would need a very large piece of land so large you probably aren't going unnoticed. I looked up info on growing indoors and couldn't find much it is possible but apparently more hassle than it is worth, some cigar message board was talking about it, so I could see it done for cigars like a home brewery. RYO tobacco in my state (huge taxes on it now) is about $6.25 an oz about $1 an oz for cheap pipe tobacco. Go ahead try to get rich this way. We all know how much an oz of cannabis goes for. You should be seeing why black markets for these 2 plants are altogether different beasts. But if not I will sum it up. 4 tobacco plants= Less than 2 weeks supply for the average smoker. 4 cannabis plants= 8 oz. Now I know I use less than most people, so I'm going to put it at about 8 months supply. Correct me if I'm wrong. Hope that clears some things up and helps. If the reception to this is good I will try finding other small issues we never think to learn about until someone else brings it up and we have no response.
I have always wondered if that value is all because the supply is so low or if it is close to actual value. Because it grow so well in so many environments if it ever becomes legal the supply should skyrocket and while the demand should go up I don't think it will go up all that much especially over the long run so I wonder how much prices will drop when it becomes legal.