National Coming Out Day

Let me rant for a moment about an incident I had with a coworker that I feel is sadly revealing, but will eventually bring me to a point. Names have been changed to protect the innocent...and the irritating...and my job. I work processing gifts made to a local institution. It's not fulfilling in the least and I frequently enter existential crisis mode, but it pays $18/hour, plus great benefits, which because of my Crohn's disease, are a necessity. We have a new woman working with us in the office who, suffice to say, is not well liked...not for lack of trying as much as severe personality deficits (she can be overbearing--the type that will corner you in your cubicle and tell you about the problems she has with her kids without any prompting). I'll call her Jill.

When the kids downstairs (mostly freshman and sophomores from the nearby university) call to generate pledges, they sometimes leave comments about the person they called for future reference. The new group of callers have proven fond of potty humor (not that I'm not...I just recognize that there's a time and a place for it...and work...not so much) and in the comments section wrote, "did I just fart?" I remarked, "that's what happens when you make listings calling for fun and energetic people instead of professional and hardworking ones." Jill replies, "they should just fire all the drug users."

Being a medical marijuana patient, I took exception to that remark. My coworkers, in unison, chimed in with "if you did that there wouldn't be anybody downstairs." And I, irritated, added, "you obviously never went to college." Certainly it wasn't the best approach, but I'm seldom at my most diplomatic at 8:30 in the morning. She retorts snippily, "I did go to college and I graduated with honors, but that's because I never did drugs--I studied."

My level of irritation rising, I reply "It is possible to do both. I graduated from UCSB with high honors and I happen to be a medical marijuana patient." I wasn't prepared for what she said next: "Well, my Dad was a pothead so I don't buy that." You don't buy it? I'm not selling it to you! Before I could say "sorry your Dad was a crappy parent, but it wasn't the pot's fault," another coworker rightfully intervened and told us to get back to work.

Now, I honestly believe that I could not have made it through college without marijuana to combat the pain, nausea, diarrhea, etc. that are typical of Crohn's disease (an autoimmune disease resulting in chronic inflammation and ulceration of the intestinal lining) and if there's one thing I won't tolerate it's condescension, but I let it go.

My coworker's issues aside though, I feel that one of the major areas of neglect in the drug law reform movement is in combating stereotypes of drug users. Admittedly, this is making headway in popular culture. Harold and Kumar (at least the first one) went a tremendous ways towards depicting 'stoners' in a positive light.

What the world needs, however, is a National Coming Out Day for marijuana smokers. We need people to realize that there are a host of successful individuals, judges, lawyers, doctors, scientists and other professionals who have and still smoke marijuana to no ill effect. Although successful, nobody would be shocked to hear that Snoop Dogg smokes and therefore would do nothing to change people's opinions of the drug. Just like racial prejudice can be combated by knowing multiple successful people of different races, so too can drug user prejudice. Certainly, this is complicated by marijuana's status as an illicit drug, but nobody can be arrested for admitting that they have smoked previously, or even for being high--only for possession. This idea will only work en masse. Without a critical mass of people, any individual could be subject to persecution, but you can't fire half of your workforce. One of the members of NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) once remarked at a national conference that if 1% of marijuana users joined the organization and paid dues they would be the most powerful lobbying group in the nation and pot would be legal. There is strength beyond imagine in numbers, so stand up and be counted!