Gretchen Burns Bergman believes that if marijuana were controlled and taxed, her eldest son wouldn’t have ever started taking heroin. That’s why Bergman is a member of a movement of mothers who support Proposition 19.  

Bergman, the executive director of A New Path (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing), joined a half dozen other mothers at a public park in West Hollywood on Tuesday morning to voice her support for Prop 19.

Julia Negron, an addiction specialist, talked about the science of addiction, Hanna Dershowitz spoke as an attorney and policy expert, and Bergman spoke as a mother with a broken family.   

Bergman's son was arrested for the first time in 1990 at age 20 for possession of marijuana.  After the initial arrest, Bergman’s son failed multiple drug tests and found himself in jail on and off until 2001. By the time he had served his sentence, his penchant for marijuana had turned into a heroin addiction.  

“He didn’t learn to shoot heroin in society. He learned to do it behind bars. I see that as the damage of the system,” Bergman, who was holding a sign of a baby behind bars, said.  Her son was shaped by the experience, she says.

“It took longer for him to no longer see himself as an ex-con than it did for him to no longer see himself as an addict,” she said.  Her son, who wishes to remain nameless, now works as an addiction counselor. But that isn’t the end of Bergman's personal saga of marijuana-related incarceration.  

Her younger son has also been arrested for marijuana possession and is currently enrolled in a Proposition 36 treatment program. Proposition 36 allows for those with non-violent drug possession charges to enroll in treatment rather than face jail-time. But in 2009, state spending on the program was cut from $108 million to $18 million.  Bergman said she knows that her son isn’t receiving adequate treatment under the proposition.

Hanna Dershowitz, a mother of a 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, said that she hopes that her kids don’t experiment with marijuana.  But she isn’t worried about addiction; she’s worried that they’ll be prosecuted.

“The most dangerous thing about marijuana is jail,” she said.  “When I think about all the things I worry about as a mother, weed isn’t one of them.  Let’s treat marijuana like alcohol, explain to our kids why they should avoid both, at least while they are young, and teach them how to be responsible about various choices in life,” she said in a written statement.

The mothers use the example of alcohol prohibition as evidence of motherly efficacy, and liken the current state of marijuana to the prohibition on alcohol in the 1930’s.

Dershowitz writes, “Women were instrumental in bringing about the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, and we can be again when it comes to determining when marijuana prohibition is reversed…not just for true law and order – but for our kids.

Joel Hay, an expert on drug legalization and a professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, doesn’t see Proposition 19 as a motherly issue to champion. 

“You can find anybody in support of anything,” he said “Anybody who’s concerned about their kids would be concerned about the health of their kids, and pot has negative health effects.  It’s well known that the 14 states that have medical access to marijuana have increased use of marijuana.  Anything that increases the social acceptability of a product will increase its use and there’s nothing in Prop 19 to discourage demand for the product.”  

But Julia Negron, a certified addiction specialist and grandmother of seven, believes differently. Her experience as an addiction specialist has shown her that marijuana is already the most accessible drug in high schools. The Yes on 19 campaign cites a survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that 33 percent of high school seniors use the drug.

The mothers addressed the health aspect, acknowledging that pot can be likened to other vices such as sugar, caffeine, alcohol and prescription drugs. But it’s Bergman’s sons’ story that guides their effort.   

“We’ve been talking reefer madness for a long time,” Negron said. “But our biggest fear as parents is that our kids will be arrested.”  

 

 

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