CALIFORNIA'S new laws liberalising cannabis are a good idea, but some of their provisions read like a parody of 21st-century liberalism. To right an injustice-that brown people were more likely than white ones to be charged when the police found marijuana on them-Los Angeles plans to help those with marijuana convictions set up pot shops. This experiment may turn out to be a foolish mistake (see page 26). But that, in a way, is the point. Congress finds it notoriously hard to pass meaningful laws and finds it almost as hard to undo legislation that has been on the books for a long time. Statehouses, governors and mayors are more nimble.
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