Among the eighteen states that have legalized marijuana to date, no state has faced greatest challenges in trying to suppress the illicit market and regulate the legal one than California – and nowhere within the state have the challenges been greater than Los Angeles. I met Cat Packer in 2016, when she moved from Ohio to California to work on the Drug Policy Alliance’s successful campaign to legalize marijuana statewide. One year later, at age 26, Cat was chosen as the founding director of Los Angeles’s new Department of Cannabis Regulation – a position she still holds. I had lots of questions for her – about making the transition from activist to government regulator as well as lessons learned, successes and failures, and the particular challenges of diversifying participation in the new legal industry.

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