Chemical Bigotry has been defined as the practice of discriminating against cannabis patients for no other reason than the outcome of a drug test. After defining Chemical Bigotry, the plaguing question becomes why? Why do humans practice bigotry in the first place? Why is it so prevalent?

A study of any culture will find bigotry endemic to it. Victims have included gays, women, and those of other religions, ethnicities, ages, classes, and even sizes and heights.

Bigotry exerts its worst effects in hate crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The most heinous outcomes of bigotry include slavery and the Holocaust. In terms of modern day tragedies, few match the genocide that took place in Rwanda during the summer of 1994 when extremist Hutu militias killed an estimated 500,000 of their fellow Tutsis countrymen. Their main tool? Bigotry. "Discrimination was so institutionalized that Tutsi were called Inyenzi (cockroach) or inzoka (snake) ... even Tutsi children were routinely singled out by teachers and addressed as cockroaches or snakes in front of their classes." (1)

Publicly characterizing another person as a "cockroach" defines an intolerant bigot. As illustrated by the Hutus, their bigotry toward the Tutsis was used to achieve a social outcome - control over their adversary. As in Rwanda, bigotry over millennia has been used as a tool of control by one group (or individual) over another and, as such, is a means of social control.

Highly related to bigotry is the bully. Bullying is the "intentional tormenting of others through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion." (2) To digress into Hollywood, the movie A Christmas Story offers interesting insights into bullying. Bully, Scut Farcus confronts Ralphie, Flick, and friends in a snowy alley on their way home from school. Farcus calls them names and exerts control over the group by forcing Flick to say "uncle" while holding his arm tightly behind his back.

The need for social control is primordial. It is programmed into our genes and may stem from the "survival of the fittest" mentality of our ancestors. In a distant time, it may have been necessary to inflict harm on weaker adversaries in order that the strongest in the clan would survive.

Applying the "bigotry as a means of social control" model to the drug war allows it to make more sense. Those who wish to control society and thus advance their own agendas need a targeted mechanism by which to secure power. The drug war offers a perfect storm. Discrimination and, hence, bigotry based on race, sex, and ethnicity are losing ground due to civil rights legislation and litigation. Likewise, municipalities are adopting gay-friendly policies, curbing sexual orientation as a target for bigotry. What's left? Ah, ha! Drugs. If played correctly, people "on drugs" can become the new boogeyman and appropriate targets for bigotry, bullying, and ultimately social control.

How are those "on drugs" described? Lazy, self-absorbed, irresponsible, destructive, and dull-witted. Ever hear inappropriate behavior summed up as "He's on drugs!"? We've defined these negative stereotypes as Chemical Bigotry.

In a play book that would make Karl Rove proud, bigotry against "druggies", particularly cannabis users, represents the perfect opportunity to retain social control. SAMSA estimates that approximately 12% of the U.S. population over age 12 has used an illicit substance in the past twelve months. (3) Further, many of these users might be described as counter culture or liberal, an anathema to Rove-like conservatives. How better to gain control of society than by bullying this 12%, and what better tool than the drug war?

The drug war - Chemical Bigotry - has stigmatized this 12%, sometimes permanently via incarceration and disenfranchisement. Both of these result in depleted capital and wealth, which further limits social power. Add drug testing to the equation, and the losses of jobs, healthcare, child custody, and other social constructs further demoralize and deflate a good segment of society that would likely empower non-Rovian candidates. That the government perpetuates Chemical Bigotry like bully Scut Farcus is perfectly logical, for those with power desire social control to advance their agenda and render their adversaries powerless.

Could the exercise of Chemical Bigotry ever engender the heinous outcomes evidenced in Rwanda? China executes hundreds "drug dealers" in conjunction with their annual International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. (4) In 2005, Shapelle Corby was sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for smuggling 4.1 g of marijuana into Bali in her gym bag. Almost 70% of adults referred to drug treatment for cannabis in Texas between 2001 and 2005 were "legally coerced" by the criminal justice system. (5) In some countries, unwarranted treatment might look a lot like a government "reeducation" camp.

Chemical bigotry reveals the darker side of human sociology and has the potential to be every bit as destructive as its gay, racial, or sexual counterparts. When social control is sought to advance a particular agenda, expect bigotry and bullying - two sides of the same coin - to predicate it. Scut Farcus' snowy back alley may seem like another continent or another time away. But, one thing has a habit of leading to another, especially when the spoils of control are sought. Fortunately, a gap still remains between genocide and the drug war. Let's keep it that way.

(1) Rwandan Coffee Club. http://www.rwandancoffeeclub.org/pregenocide.html

(2) Wikipedia on bullying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying

(3) Drug War Facts on Drug Use Estimates. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/druguse.htm

(4) Media Awareness Project. China Daily. 6/26/2004. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n932/a12.html

(5) NORML News. 7/12/2007. http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7303