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States lead the US toward a new era in its war on drugs

• 22:42 16 August 2013 by Peter Aldhous

It isn't the end of the war on drugs. But it may be the beginning of the end for a punitive approach to sentencing that sees the US imprison more of its people than any other nation.
On 12 August, when US attorney general Eric Holder announced a plan to reduce lengthy minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, it was a watershed moment. But it was also part of a wider shift towards a more nuanced approach to the US's drug problem in which individual states – rather than the federal government – are leading the way.