Oakland embraces marijuana sales. Compton bans them. How is justice best served?
From a distance, the legalization of recreational marijuana in California can appear like a giant collective embrace of the drug by a state that is by far its largest producer and consumer. Yet the diverging paths of Oakland and Compton, two cities with histories of illicit drugs and years of aggressive law enforcement crackdowns, highlight the continued ambivalence of many Californians toward marijuana.