Mother’s Day yesterday saw a group of mothers gather on the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse to deliver a clear message: “No more drug war!” Moms United to End the War on Drugs is an organization of mothers whose families have been negatively affected by US drug policy and the drug war. They advocate for therapeutic drug policies in a movement to stop the violence, drug incarceration and overdose deaths that they believe are the result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. “Mothers throughout history have come forward for the sake of their children,” says Gretchen Burns Bergman, executive director of Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing (PATH). “We’re coming forth saying that the drug war has been more damaging to our families than the drugs themselves.” Many of the mothers in attendance had lost children either due to drug overdoses or drug-related violence, including Lorraine Rebennack. “I think the war on drugs has to end,” she says. “It hasn’t saved anybody. It hasn’t changed anything. It’s created chaos in neighborhoods and shootings. And our jails are full of people who have something else to give to this world other than sitting in jail for non-violent offenses.”