April, 28 2011, 12:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tony Newman 646-335-5384 or Burns Bergman 619-884-3561
Mother's Day Launch of New National Campaign: Moms United to End War on Drugs
Moms Played Key Role in Ending Alcohol Prohibition and Now Working to End Failed Drug War
WASHINGTON
Moms from around the country are using Mother's Day to announce the national launch of a new campaign whose mission is to help end the disastrous drug war. Moms United to End the War on Drugs hopes to play a similar role as moms in the 1930's who led the successful fight to end Alcohol Prohibition.
Many of the moms leading this campaign have been personally impacted by the war on drugs, including having family who suffer from addiction, have been repeatedly incarcerated, or have died from preventable drug overdoses.
"My two sons have addictive illness, so our family has experienced not only the devastation of this life-threatening disease, but also the destruction of punitive policies and incarceration," said Gretchen Burns Bergman, a co-founder of Moms United to End the War on Drugs. "My older son spent a decade of his young life cycling through the criminal justice system for non-violent drug offenses and relapse. This was a tragic waste of human potential, a painful journey for the family, and a tremendous cost to the state. Mothers must speak out to change laws and to end the drug war that has been so damaging to our families and to the future of our children."
The Moms United campaign mission is to "end the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are a result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We are building a movement to stop the stigmatization and criminalization of people who use drugs or who are addicted to drugs. We are urgently calling for health-oriented strategies and widespread drug policy reform in order to stop the irresponsible waste of dollars and resources, and the devastating loss of lives and liberty."
"My son was killed with a friend in a random crime committed by two juveniles involved in gang activity and illegal drug use. We all want safer communities, but the drug war has not made our communities safer, helped people with addiction, or saved lives," said Joy Strickland, CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence. "The drug war has led to mass incarceration, gang violence, and an overdose epidemic. I am delighted to be part of a campaign focused on healing and ending forty years of a failed policy."
Moms United to End the War on Drugs will organize activities around the country over the next several months, including commemorations of the 40th Anniversary of President Nixon declaring the "War on Drugs" on June 17 and International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31.
Leaders of the Moms United campaign from around the country include Gretchen Burns Bergman (San Diego, CA), the mother of two sons who have struggled with heroin addiction and repeated incarceration; Denise Cullen (Palm Desert, CA), a social worker specializing in grief counseling, whose son died from an overdose two years ago; Kathie Kane-Willis (Chicago, IL), a researcher and professor, mother of a 13 year old daughter, founder of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University and a former heroin user; Joyce Rivera (New York, NY) who founded St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction in the Bronx and is the sister of an injection drug user who died of HIV/AIDS and Joy Strickland (Dallas, Texas) , CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence, who son was killed by drug prohibition related violence.
Moms United to End the War on Drugs is a project of San Diego-based A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing), a 12-year old nonprofit organization that works to reduce the stigma associated with addictive illness through education and compassionate support, and to advocate for therapeutic rather than punitive drug policies.
The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization promoting drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
(212) 613-8020LATEST NEWS
House Dems Voice 'Deep Concern' Over Biden Claim That Israel Is Legally Using US Arms
A letter from 26 lawmakers notes the "stark differences and gaps" between what Biden administration officials say and the opinions of "prominent experts and global institutions" accusing Israel of genocide.
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More than two dozen House Democrats on Tuesday challenged the Biden administration's claim that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in compliance with domestic and international law—an assertion made amid an ongoing World Court probe of "plausibly" genocidal Israeli policies and practices in Gaza.
Citing "mounting credible and deeply troubling reports and allegations" of human rights crimes committed by Israeli troops in Gaza and soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank, 26 congressional Democrats led by Texas Reps. Veronica Escobar—who co-chairs President Joe Biden's reelection campaign—and Joaquin Castro asked U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines "whether and how" their agencies determined Israel is lawfully using arms provided by Washington.
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The lawmakers' letter came amid reports of fresh Israeli atrocities, including a drone strike on a playground in the Maghazi refugee camp in northern Gaza that killed at least 11 children. Eyewitnesses described a "horrific scene of children torn apart."
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This, despite multiple federal laws—and the administration's own rules— prohibiting U.S. arms transfers to human rights violators.
According to Palestinian and international officials, more than 110,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since October 7. Most of the dead are women and children. At least 7,000 Palestinians are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings.
Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced in what many Palestinians are calling a second Nakba, a reference to the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
A growing number of not only progressive lawmakers but also mainstream Democrats are calling for a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who was criticized earlier in the war for not calling for a cease-fire—stood beside a photo of a starving Gazan girl while declaring "no more money for" the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his "war machine."
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Responding on social media, his wife, Stella Assange—who is an attorney—blasted the U.S. assurances as "weasel words."
"The United States has issued a nonassurance in relation to the First Amendment, and a standard assurance in relation to the death penalty," she said. "It makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution's previous assertion that Julian has no First Amendment rights because he is not a U.S citizen."
"The Biden administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late."
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The U.K. court's next hearing is scheduled for May 20. Last week, reporters asked U.S. President Joe Biden about requests from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and members of the country's Parliament to drop the extradition effort and charges. He said that "we're considering it."
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Assange was charged under the Espionage Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for publishing classified documents including the "Collateral Murder" video and the Afghan and Iraq war logs. Since British authorities dragged Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London—where he lived with political asylum for seven years—he has been jailed in the city's Belmarsh Prison.
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Following recent reports that Google may soon expand its tech collaboration with the Israeli government, dozens of the company's employees on Tuesday entered its offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California and announced that they wouldn't leave until executives pull out of its $1.2 billion cloud services and data contract with the country.
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Former Google cloud software engineer Eddie Hatfield, who was fired last month for disrupting a Google Israel event, was among those who protested in New York.
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