Dr. Bearman was raised in Rice Lake Wisconsin. His father was a pharmacist who owned a small town drug store. Dr. Bearman used to play hide and seek in the basement and worked in the store during high school and college. He majored in psychology, graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin. He is now a medical consultant for Zona Seca, and the author of medicinal marijuana section of ABC-Cliois Emerging Issues for the Twentyfirst century.

He graduated in 1967 from the University of Washington School of Medicine. During his internship year at the US Public Health Hospital in Seattle he helped start the third Free Clinic in the country.

This began his almost 40 year professional relationship in the drug abuse treatment and prevention field. This experience includes being the Co-director of the Haight-Ashbury Drug Treatment Program, being a member of Governor Reagans Inter Agency Task Force on Drug Abuse, and a member of both the Santa Barbara County and San Diego County Drug Abuse Technical Advisor Committees.
He has been the Medical Director of the Santa Barbara County Methadone Maintenance Clinic, the Ventura County Inpatient Opiate Detox Program, the Santa Barbara County Alcohol Detox program and currently serves as MEdical Director of Zona Seca.

This book was inspired by a Black Studies Department course which Dr. Bearman co-taught with History of Jazz expert, Dr. Douglas Daniels and a subsequent course which he taught alone. Dr. Bearman has also taught the first course at UCSB on recreational drug pharmacology and its effect on human physiology, and similar courses at UCSF and San Diego State University.

He has written numerous articles and op-ed pieces on various drug related topics including articles in The Journal of Social Issues, The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs and The Harvard Business Review.