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

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.