Mother's Day: Moms, Cops and Students Unite to End War on Drugs at National Press Club

Mothers from around the country will join with law enforcement and students at the National Press Club on May 2nd in honor of Mother's Day. The press conference will launch a new campaign comprised of national organizations representing mothers, police and students that seek to finally end the disastrous drug war. Moms, cops and students will share powerful stories of losing loved ones to drug prohibition-related violence, incarceration, overdose and addiction, unveil the "Mom's Bill of Rights," and highlight a series of activities around the country timed to Mother's Day.

"The war on drugs is really a war on families," said Gretchen Burns Bergman, of Moms United to End the War on Drugs Campaign. "It is time to end the stigmatization and criminalization of people who use drugs and move from arrest and mass incarceration to therapeutic, health-oriented strategies. Moms were the driving force in repealing alcohol prohibition and now Moms will play a similar role in ending the war on drugs."

Leaders of the campaign who will be speaking at the press conference include Gretchen Burns Bergman (San Diego, CA), the mother of two sons who have both struggled with heroin addiction and repeated incarceration and founder of A New PATH; 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, former heroin addict, mother of a 13-year-old daughter, and founder of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University; Joyce Rivera (New York, NY) who founded St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction and is the sister of an injection drug user who died of HIV/AIDS; Joy Strickland (Dallas, Texas), CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence, whose son was killed by drug prohibition-related violence; Neill Franklin (Baltimore, MD), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and former Maryland narcotics cop who has seen fellow police officers lose their lives because of the drug war; and Nina Graves (Delaware), a mother and former assistant chief of police; Diane Fornbacher (New Jersey), a mother and vice-chair of the NORML Women's Alliance; Aaron Houston (Washington, D.C.), executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Yolande Cadore (New York, NY), a mom and director of strategic partners at the Drug Policy Alliance.

What: Mother's Day press conference announcing partnership between moms, cops and students to end war on drugs. The Moms United Bill of Rights will be unveiled.

When: May 2, 2012 at 10 a.m.

Where: National Press Club, Murrow Room - 529 14th Street, NW 13th Floor, Washington, D.C.

Who: Moms, cops and students who have been impacted by the war on drugs