ALASKA TRENDS.

A drug notorious for making its users lazy and idle has been busy, busy, busy building a new industry in Alaska, in less than a decade since voters legalized recreational use of marijuana, cannabis has grown into the state's most valuable cash crop. Per capita, Alaska has the most retail shops of any state where the drug is legal. Pretty impressive for a market that was entirely the domain of illicit dealers before 2016.

Alaska's libertarian streak gets the credit for passing the legalization initiative in a politically conservative electorate, and that same tendency could also explain the proliferation of marijuana businesses. Cutting red tape and streamlining government regulation works for other industries, so cannabis benefits from the same light touch.

Which is not to...