All in all is cannabis sold in a dispensary better than ...cannabis that is not?
I don't really understand the "better" and "quality" words people use.
Most street (very little of it) I've had in the last few years since trying to see if I wanted a card would kick my ass. It was dense and trimmed. The same as you get in a dispensary but you don't get to select (or know) the variety and you don't know any of the labs. It was also the exact same price as a dispensary unless you got bulk. The last street I had was a good high for me (not ass kicking) so varieties do change you just don't know what they are.
I suspect most of the street I had was selected all based on how much THC the variety had potential for.
Dispensary stuff can kick my ass. I can have some prediction of that based on THC % but that's not always the case, I've had 16% put me down, I have a 25% variety that's good for me. A 20% variety is one of my favorites, a 19% variety hits me hard. I can be sure I need to be careful with 28%+.
So at least for me I know I can't go by how it feels to guess at THC levels to use that as "quality". I suspect that is what many are saying with words that really don't describe anything about the bud or the effects.
I have yet to hear anyone who uses those words to complain or praise use them for 1:1 or 2:1 CBD varieties which makes me think what is really being said is how stoned it got them unless they're specifically complaining about mold or seeds.
So far what I've seen is the things I would call "better" or "quality" is the same. The difference is you have an idea of what you're getting with dispensary stuff. I've seen people claiming they'd pay $15-$30/8th on the street, I imagine they were getting some pretty crappy weed.
Compared to what I got in the 70's and 80's and even the 90's, OMG. Light years ahead of then for smell, trichomes and trim.
Columbian Gold is one of my favorites because it's familiar. The color is very wrong, it was bright gold now it's green. The smell is way stronger. The high is the same but it takes less to get there.