ON MARIJUANA, BIGOTRY, DEMOCRACY AND ... SATIRE

Editor's note: Stop! It was satire a sarcastic diatribe against the war on
drugs.

Seldom does a letter provoke such inflamed and misunderstood responses as
did "Hurrah for the pot police."

And because the letter, published in our April 26 issue, was run on our Web
site, it elicited reactions not only from local readers, but from Internet
users in other states and Canada.

POLICE THE POT THE POLICE

I am sure that you got blasted with letters in response to "Hurrah for the
Pot Police" [Letters, April 26]. I don't usually write a lot of letters to
editors and such, but I couldn't resist this one.

Name Withheld must already have a drug-fried brain. I do not condone
marijuana use for getting high, but I was appalled when I heard about that
drug raid on that farmer and his family ["Casualties of war," April 12]. I
see it as a prime example of the law abusing their authority. I don't like
seeing my tax dollars going for such inhumane treatment of the people they
are getting paid to protect.

Of course the Bible doesn't mention pot. It also doesn't mention incest,
abortion and a lot of the other issues of today. It was written almost
2,000 years ago, by men. I was born and raised in a Christian home. But the
Christian saturation in this area has actually turned me away from the
church. It is so full of bigotry and hatred. That was not what I was taught
as a child.

Name Withheld needs to look at the ingredients in "culturally ordained"
drugs. He might be surprised at what he's putting in his body. Wake up,
person, you are living in a fantasy world. All organic farmers should be
treated with great respect.

Thank Spirit for the freedom of speech.

Teresa Ballinger, Black Mountain

DINGBATS FOR THE POT POLICE

I find it extremely poor journalism to print such a letter from an
anonymous source ["Hurrah for the pot police," April 26]. Obviously that
letter was authored by either a "dope-cop" or a "religious fanatic" (or,
likely, both). If it had been a "meaningful" letter, it might have made
sense. But why print a letter like that? Just trying to stir up debate?

Actually, whoever wrote that letter did a huge favor to all the
organizations fighting to make cannabis legal and make "dope-cops"
obsolete. We put his letter and others like it on our walls, and distribute
it to others, because it helps us to mobilize the masses against his kind!

We take our American rights seriously we will overgrow!

David Malcolm, Currie Portland, Ore.

STOP THE SLANDER OF PEACEFUL POT USERS

The raving rant against innocent, peaceful pot users who quietly huddle in
their houses trying to avoid attention was a blatant example of hatred
that is based on bias. No wonder this person refused to sign their name
[Letters, "Hurrah for the pot police," April 26]. As long as there are
prejudices against minorities for no reason, this evil slanderer will
continue to spew out similar maniacal nonsense.

Zero tolerance in your country has evolved into hatred for one's fellow
humans just because they choose to use an herb that has itself been
slandered, prosecuted and burned for no good reason.

The ugliness is escalating. Please, just stop it right now.

Kathy Galbraith, Raymond, Alberta

TOO MANY REAL ISSUES TO BICKER OVER MARIJUANA USE

I read the Mountain Xpress every Wednesday, and I always read the
commentaries. Sometimes, they make me cheer; other times, they make me boil
with anger. But when I read "Hurray for the pot police" [Letters, April
26], I became frightened and nauseous to find that there are people so
uneducated, who can somehow genuinely feel that belligerent. I also might
add, they were so proud of their stand they wouldn't have their name printed.

It's very frustrating to hear, every week, so many people so upset about
decisions people make that only affect that particular individual. When
someone commits, for example, a violent act, there's definitely a need for
some attention because the same situation could very easily happen to you
or me, without a decision involved on our part. There are so many of those
particular situations that I can't believe we waste so much time and energy
on what people do that doesn't affect anyone but the individual. Please,
allow me to illustrate.

Right now, you're reading this paper; at this exact same moment, someone,
somewhere, is smoking a marijuana cigarette. Do you feel a buzz coming on?

Is there smoke coming out of your mouth, filling the room you're in?
Probably not. I could give other examples, but I think you get the point.

So, please, I beg you, for my sake, for my children's sake, and for your
sake can't we stop this trivial bickering and focus on things that affect
us all? We've virtually exhausted our natural forests and fossil fuels,
when we have other options. We've got the most overcrowded jail systems in
the world, and we're putting people in jail for victimless crimes. Jail, I
thought, was to keep menaces to society off the street. A person with the
disease known as addiction needs help therapeutically not by threatening,
negative reinforcement.

By the way, for the unnamed author of "Hurray for the pot police," alcohol
and tobacco use each kill more people every year than all illegal drugs
combined. I've never found a case of anyone, anywhere, who has died of a
THC overdose. And I don't recall the Bible, in any interpretation,
endorsing tobacco specifically. You should try reading educational material
sometimes; it actually can teach you things.

Chad Hildebran, Asheville

GIVE ME THE GANJA-SMOKING HIPPIE

Please tell me that the letter titled "Hurrah for the pot police" was
someone's very sick idea of a joke. In self-defense-induced denial, I
really don't want to acknowledge the fact that there are people running
loose out there with such perverted notions about good and evil.

I do find it strange that someone so proud of their Christian values
elected to have their name withheld. But not wanting to get into a "my god
is better than your god" type of discussion, I won't take that any further.

I am even more offended at the hate and racism evident in this person's
nasty little poison-pen spewings. Given a choice between the two, I'll take
a thong-wearing, bicycle-riding, ganja-smoking hippie any day of the week.

At least I wouldn't have to worry that the hippie was going to beat me to
death with racist, pseudo-religious dogma.

Melanie McMahan, Asheville

POLITICS, BIG-BUSINESS INTERESTS FUEL THE DRUG WAR

[Regarding the "Hurray for the pot police" letter, which ran in the March
26 issue of Xpress,] it is important to note that most drug-war-mongering
politicians and civilians fall into two categories:

1. Those who actually believe the propaganda, lies and ignorant myths
peddled by the prohibitionists who refuse to consider any reform-oriented
alternatives to the current massive failure and fraud of the drug war; and

2. Those prohibitionists, referred to above, who rely on the continued
prosecution of but never a victory in the drug war, in order to sustain
the industries, jobs and constituents' votes that keep them in business and
in power. The hottest fires in hell will be reserved for these people, who
employ fear, lies and oppression in an attempt to continue but, again,
never to win the war on drugs.

Cannabis has no lethal dose, and its pharmacological effects have never
caused a single death, in over 5,000 years of recorded history.

The (unseen) driving force against medical (or unrestricted adult)
legalization of cannabis is the fact that cannabis can't be patented. This
precludes the need for big business to be involved, and that fact makes
cannabis commercially unattractive, pharmaceutically speaking. It seems
that if it can't be profitized successfully, the government can't justify
legalization even for the sick and dying.

Unfortunately, a change in current policy (prohibition) would necessitate
that the alternative (legalization) reap more profits (seen and unseen)
than our present policy does.

Maybe the politicians are required to adhere to the party line of
prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison/industrial
complex, the drug-testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the
politicians themselves, et al., can't live without the budget justification
not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture
benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes,
justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies, and is diminishing
many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be inalienable, according
to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Myron Von Hollingsworth, Fort Worth, Texas