California Just Became the First State to Defelonize Drug Use

On a national level, Prop 47 is a watershed moment because it adds major weight to a push for criminal justice reform that’s already seen​ 30 states restructure their laws since 2007. Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee and Utah may soon join California and raise that number to 35; task forces in those states are currently looking into local prison issues and are likely to try out reform initiatives as early as 2015.

In other words: more than half of the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world is finally recognizing the need to rethink what it means to be “criminal.”

Read the rest over at VICE.