Cheers to the 25 brave officers who served God, state and county
during the July raid of the pony-tailed pot farmer [Xpress, April 12,
"Casualties of war"]. It makes me proud, as I write my yearly checks
to the IRS and the State Revenue Office in Raleigh, to know that the
money will support such noble efforts in the future.

Hats off to the Asheville Police Department officers who so
courageously joined the raid; $192 each to harass some long-haired,
back-to-the-land freak is a small price to pay for a pot-free America.

Obviously, we need to buy more advanced surveillance helicopters, so
we can do better than the fuzzy images these underfunded agencies come
up with. I'm sure - with more generous funding for high-tech-camera
development - wedding bands, as well as pot seeds, could be better
analyzed. There are, at this present time, perhaps hundreds of
law-breaking citizens quietly smoking dope in houses that should be
hooked up to a giant network of infrared surveillance cameras capable
of distinguishing the different burning rates of tobacco and pot.
These people should be put in jail before they start organizing for
their "rights."

I find it distasteful for Xpress to interview the [drug-war] opponents
and publish letters such as Brian Kester's [April 12, "Your
moral/legal obligation to fight the War on Drugs"]. Letters such as
his are extremely dangerous in their potential to undermine the legal
authority and moral righteousness of the government - federal, state
and local.

The trillions of tax dollars spent on what Kester calls "domestic
terrorism of our own citizens" is more rightly a healthy eradication
of a pestilence that has been growing since the hippie '60s.

The modern King James Bible nowhere mentions pot, cannabis, weed,
buds, blunts, mooters, griffo, or spliffs.

As a Christian society, we must make sure everyone uses only the
culturally ordained drugs of alcohol and tobacco.

As for the "Community of Compassion," they sound like a bunch of
commies. Their subversive drive to force a marijuana referendum could
turn this town into a giant forest of kudzu and ganja.

Don't sign their petition, or the Cherokee will rise up and the rastas
will take over City Council. Everyone will be wearing G-strings, and
riding bikes and skateboards everywhere. Strict marijuana enforcement
should be the highest priority of the Asheville Police Department. Pot
may be a sacred herb in India and Africa - but here in America, face
it: It's an evil drug. So don't confuse your readers with compassion,
conscientious objection and all that hippie crap. They might not pay
their taxes.

Name withheld at writer's request