In honor of these mothers, I ask you this year to support the passage of a very modest reform, Senate Bill 1506, introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and currently before the state senate: to revise simple drug possessions (not sales or distribution) to be punished as misdemeanors in California, just as is done in 13 other states, D.C., and the federal system.
By Hanna Liebman Dershowitz  |  May 13, 2012
Hanna Dershowitz (second from right) on a panel to help bring an end to the war on drugs.
Mother’s Day usually starts out early for me, as my children, now six and eight, pile into bed, ready to shower me with love and gifts. But this year, my celebration will be tinged with sadness, as we lost my mother-in-law recently.
Because of that loss, I’m additionally mindful of the experiences of mothers who have lost their children to the criminal justice system or even death because of their involvement with drugs.
In my work to end the war on drugs, I frequently come into contact with these women. They have had their children criminalized and taken away, and have been divorced from control over medical decisions about their care, all because of a disease that we treat as a crime.
Rather than sinking into bitterness, these mothers instead are building mom-entum for a movement to restore sanity to our overly harsh, wasteful, and ineffective drug laws. It stands to reason: mothers were the driving force behind the repeal of alcohol Prohibition, and they will be the backbone of the necessary repeal of modern-day prohibitions that cause more problems than they solve.
In honor of these mothers, I ask you this year to support the passage of a very modest reform, Senate Bill 1506, introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and currently before the state senate: to revise simple drug possessions (not sales or distribution) to be punished as misdemeanors in California, just as is done in 13 other states, D.C., and the federal system.
Currently, most drug possessions are punishable by up to three years of incarceration. Mothers know that we cannot be inflexible and harsh when it comes to dealing with our children’s conduct: we can’t just send them to their rooms no matter what the behavior, and not consider various approaches depending on the circumstances. We need to change our approach to drug users. Under SB 1506, as a misdemeanor, the maximum for simple possession would be one year, plus possible probation of up to five years. And treatment could be substituted for any portion of the incarceration. In the states that handle possession as a misdemeanor, overall crime rates are lower, as are property crime rates. And history has shown that harsh penalties have failed to deliver improvements in levels of drug use or dependence.
Today in California, people prosecuted for possession of drugs, even if their actual incarceration is not lengthy, get tagged with that felony label that consigns them to a lifetime of debilitating consequences, even  though their actions don’t harm others. Their job prospects are extremely limited, and they will be precluded from many other benefits, such as food stamps, often voting—not to mention being arrested, possibly serving time, and other harsh and harrowing outcomes. Some consequences are reserved only for drug convictions, such as preclusions from student loans and subsidized housing. These are benefits we do not take away from even violent murderers. Moreover, it is worth noting that a large percentage of people arrested for drugs are very young, so these are other mothers’ young sons and daughters we are talking about. As a mother, I don’t want people’s kids to have their lives derailed for a youthful indiscretion. Do you?
Not only does this make good sense, but revising drug possession sentences to misdemeanors under SB 1506 would also save $200 million a year, largely by avoiding the costs of lengthy incarceration, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. We should redirect the money saved toward drug treatment and education, other rehabilitative services, and to shore up our crumbling public education system.
Because we need so desperately to change our drug policies, I am a member of the Moms United to End the War on Drugs campaign of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing), whose mission is to end the violence, mass incarceration, and overdose deaths that are a result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. It is important to me as a mother that my children grow up in a country that rejects these ineffective and damaging drug war policies. SB 1506 would be a good first step. And you know how we mothers love to catalog first steps!
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Dershowitz is an attorney and mother of a six-year-old and an eight-year-old. She is the Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Reform Advocate for the ACLU of California, and a member of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction, Treatment and Healing).
