The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that one of the federal government's main points in pushing cannabis legalization is to cripple the black market. A Globe editorial says that now the Trudeau government suddenly floating a surprise 2.3-per-cent "annual regulatory fee" that will be applied to the gross revenues of large-volume marijuana growers. The baseline requirement for countering the illicit pot trade is for the legal stuff to be priced modestly. This is the opposite of that. Coupled with a previously announced $1-a-gram excise tax, the proposed 2.3-per-cent levy (1 per cent for small-scale growers) will likely boost the cost of legal weed. There is evidence, notably from Colorado, suggesting regulators should err on the low side when it comes to pricing signals. Then there is the question of how pricing affects the promising, but still nascent, Canadian cannabis industry. The trade association representing Canada's biggest marijuana players was caught off guard by the feds' clever cost-recovery plan. The government should listen to what Canada's pot growers have to say and consider its options carefully. To do otherwise is to risk undercutting an industry, not to mention a key policy objective.