California's Prop. 47 also represents a blow to the drug war

California&#039;s Prop. 47 also represents a blow to the drug war

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Midterm voters approved the legalization of recreational marijuana use in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. last night, but California's Prop. 47 is a major strike against the war on drugs, too.

The ballot measure, which will help alleviate the state's chronic prison crowding and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars as a result, will reduce sentencing on drug possession by changing the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor. The new maximum sentence for drug possession will be one year, and those currently serving longer sentences will have the right to appeal for a sentence reduction.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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