Let's overview what we have learned about bigotry and its relevance to medical marijuana.

- Chemical Bigotry is the application of bias and intolerance toward those whose body chemistry as measured through a chemical assay differs from a pre-established norm enough to apply social, governmental, workplace, or other sanctions unrelated to actual behaviors or performance. Sanctions can include the loss of a job, child custody, housing, education, or even admission to a pain treatment clinic or organ transplant list. (1)

- Bigotry is exercised by bullies (like Skut Farcus in A Christmas Story) as a means of social control over a targeted group - in our case, medicinal cannabis patients - in order to stigmatize, disenfranchise, demoralize, ostracize, and deplete them of capital, wealth, and consequently social power. (2)

- Bullies use propaganda devices like name calling, generalities, fear, the bandwagon, and the selective use of facts to advance bigotry, which with regard to cannabis is live and well. (3)

To understand the paradigm in which we find ourselves as a result of a 70+ year drive to suppress cannabis, there is another factor that requires exploration: the fence sitter.

Fence sitters are those who become a third party to the bully/victim dynamic. While some bullies exercise their brutality in private, many (particularly those desiring social control) do so quite publicly. Fence sitters are the spectators to these incidences: sometimes observers, sometimes participants, and sometimes objectors.

In A Christmas Story, 'toadie' Grover Dills literally hopped off of a fence assist bully Scut Farcus as he tormented Ralphie and his friends. After first observing the altercation from afar, Dills aided Farcus, becoming a participant in the bullying.

Like Dills, it is unlikely that there is anyone among us who has never piled on the bigotry bandwagon. Recall that the need for social control in the context of the 'survival of the fittest' is primordial. It may feel natural, even empowering, to assist the bigot in the quest for control.

A 1990s study about the bully dynamic by Canadian psychologist Debra Pepler confirmed that nearly 60% of school students who seemed to be neutral to bullying were actually on good terms with the bully and that almost half of the non-involved observers eventually went on to jeer the victims and cheer the perpetrators. (4)

Several reasons explain why fence sitters remain on the sidelines and, well, 'sit on the fence.' (5) First, they fear becoming the next victim. With Chemical Bigotry, this is a realistic. If I speak up, I may be identified as one of the 'druggies' and then be subject to reprisal - drug testing and its attendant losses. Secondly, fear begets lost confidence. Perhaps because of the reprisals, the fence sitter loses confidence in his ability to change the dynamic. Finally, fence sitters lack the necessary strategies and skills to intervene. Fear and a lack of confidence don't represent the best platforms from which to challenge bigotry, and unless someone has been educated beforehand, it is unlikely that the correct words and actions will be forth coming during a confrontation.

Education appears to be the key, and the activist appears to be the messenger. While African Americans' quest for civil rights can provide many instructive examples on how to overcome bigotry, one of the pivotal acts that began their path to equal rights illustrates the power of both education and activists.

In July of 1948, with the stroke of a pen, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which eliminated racial segregation in the U.S. military. In doing so, Truman moved from sitting on the fence of race relations to becoming a grandfather of civil rights. This was a remarkable feat since Truman had been raised in the Southern tradition of racial segregation. Some have suggested Truman was inspired by a desire to do the right thing. Others have posited that was a novel ploy to secure the African American vote in an election year. In truth, it was the education and pressure applied by activists like A. Philip Rudolph.

During and after World War II, Rudolph actively engaged Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman about civil rights. Rudolph's central premise lay in the abysmal treatment of black soldiers in the South after they returned from honorably serving their country in World War II. He emphasized the disconnect between their treatment and the democratic principles for which the war had been fought. He persistently pressed both presidents on the issue, even threatening massive civil disobedience. Although Congress drafted bills and held hearings on the subject, these efforts could not overcome entrenched Southern opposition. In the end, it was that stroke of a pen that set the stage for the major civil rights gains made in the 1950s and 1960s. (6)

This example shows the power of the activists to educate 'fence sitter,' Harry Truman, and transform him from an observer to an objector and ally. Truman might not have understood the need for desegregating the military had it not been for the awareness he gained from A. Philip Rudolph.

The parallels between racism, sexism, and Chemical Bigotry have been drawn, and all can lead to the worst in human behavior at the hands of the political bullies who wield them. The quaint fence-sitter dynamic illustrated in A Christmas Story looked no further than Christmas Day. Though fence sitter Dills sided with the bully one day doesn't infer that he would the next. The examples set by A. Philip Rudolph and Harry Truman show us that bigotry can be overcome by education and activism. These should serve as examples that fundamental social change is possible. As activists, we must continue the education so as to increase awareness and ultimately end Chemical Bigotry.

(1) OPNews - July 2007 Edition, "Dichotomies." http://www.ohiopatient.net/v2/content/view/864/1/

(2) OPNews - August 2007 Edition, "Bigotry as a Means of Social Control." http://www.ohiopatient.net/v2/content/view/889/2/

(3) OPNews - September 2007 Edition, "Sticks and Stones." http://www.ohiopatient.net/v2/content/view/893/2/

(4) Scientific American - Mind. "Stopping the Bullies." June 2005. http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?articleID=000A4E36-582D-128A-982D83414B 7F0000&pageNumber=2

(5) "The Role of Peer Bystanders in School Bullying: Positive Steps toward Promoting Peaceful Schools," by Jodie Lodge and Erica Frydenberg. http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15430421tip4404_6?cookieSet=1

References about Harry Truman and Executive Order 9981

(6)(a) American Experience: The Presidents. "Domestic Politics: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/33_truman/truman_domestic.html

(b) White House Historical Association. "President and Public Pressure: 'For a Redress of Grievances - Truman, A. Philip Randolph, and the desegregation of the armed services." http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs/04_a03_d02.html

(c) "Military has been a Desegregation Model," Major Cox. http://www.majorcox.com/columns/truman.htm