Pubdate: Wed, 10 May 2000 Date: 05/10/2000 Source: Mountain Xpress (NC) Author: Teresa Ballinger Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n560/a13.html 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.