To Be Blunt, California’s Marijuana Industry Is Stoking High Anxiety

Once Weed Becomes Legal, Paradoxically, We'll Need to Step up Policing Our Cash Crop

California’s 2018 transition to legal marijuana contains a mind-bending paradox: Ending prohibitions on marijuana is going to require an awful lot of aggressive law enforcement.

When January 1 rolls around, California will not merely be permitting adults 21 and older to buy marijuana for recreational purposes. The state and its cities also will be scrambling to create a new and wickedly complicated regime to regulate and tax cannabis.

Coming high times will have high stakes: The legalization of cannabis in America’s largest state, if carried off well, represents an opportunity to …