... after all, you can't just decide you don't like the law, so you're going to disobey it. And if you're going to take up arms against the government, what do you think is going to happen?

Tom and Rollie apparently thought they could just do whatever they wanted without regard for law. You may think the law is wrong, but I don't think his strategy for change was very sound, nor did he appear to shore up the necessary support among his following that he needed to make change.

Had Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X had decided that the best way to bring about the change they wanted was to sit at the Southern lunch counters and, when the police came along to arrest them, stage an armed revolt, that movement's story would have had a much different ending.

The only thing I would agree with the author on is his opinion of the Reagan crime bill that allows law enforcement agencies to keep proceeds from raids. I think his opinion there is right on target.

... after all, you can't just decide you don't like the law, so you're going to disobey it.

Isn't that one of the foundations of America? If you think the law is wrong, break it to force change? Civil disobediance?

Having read "Burning Rainbow Farm," you realize that it is not the pot that makes people freak out but rather our government's insane campaign against it.

And as the government has gotten more and more crazy over pot, the science of cannabinoids gets more and more interesting.

Who the hell ever would have imagined the active ingredients in pot could kill breast cancer cells? Or prevent Type I diabetes or osteoporosis or cure incontinence and chronic cystitis and post traumatic nightmares to boot?

Not even Cheech and Chong would have dared dream up something like that.

Some day when the press stops trying to be so politically correct and starts covering marijuana from an objective scientific point of view, some people's worlds are going to be rocked so hard, they won't ever feel the same again.

On the one hand, there is no doubt that law enforcement is completely out of control in this country, and at every level. I have a not-yet-completed website that deals with these issues (http://www.inourname.org). I've thought a lot about them, and done a lot of research.

But you just don't buy semi-automatic rifles and, in effect, declare that a state of war exists between you and the State. And when the cops inevitably come, YOU DON'T SHOOT AT THEM. Unless, as at Waco, they shoot first.

I think that what happened to these two guys is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy they brought onto themselves. The LAST thing that they should have been doing was growing weed on a piece of land that might as well have had a "We Cultivate Weed" neon sign blinking 24/7. This prosecutor who went after them is typical of the breed...but was he wrong?? The guys were breaking the law, however stupid that law is (and I'm for decriminalizing most drugs).

One thing I can agree with is that all of this started with our insane War on Drugs. That's got to go if we are ever going to stop these kinds of incidents.

Did anyone ever really believe that the "war on drugs" was about drugs? It is a way to criminalize the poor and certain other members of society, then filter tax dollars to private companies. That is all it has ever been.

Of course, I'm a criminal according to the drug war because I use marijuana. Never mind that I don't drink alcohol, ever, or smoke cigarettes, or touch any other drug, that I'm an exercise nut with a demanding job and a Stanford degree, that I'm a homeownner, have a serious girlfriend and will probably get married and become a dad within a couple years, I vote in every election, etc etc live up to pretty much everything else you need to be considered an upstanding member of society. But instead I'm a criminal, and have been for just over half my life now. Funny how I was able to do all of these things while be at least an occassional pot smoker the entire time.

Funnier still how pot is just about the only drug you can make a comedy about. No one even really makes alcohol comedies anymore--"Absolutely Fabulous," maybe, but those characters are considered sad. No one has ever made "Leaving Las Vegas" about pot. Maybe someday we'll be logical about all of this. But probably not.

If someone is arrested for an alleged drug violation and that person is driving a relatively new SUV or a nice car, that vehicle immediately disappears into the system. It doesn't matter if there's an outstanding loan on the vehicle, or whether the person is ever prosecuted, that vehicle is gone. A person who is deemed important enough to own it ends up with it.

This is an amazingly corrupt system.

You can BIG UP pot all you want, there's no denying the vast majority of people who smoke pot become lazy and dumb.

I lived in South Bend, Indiana at the time of the infamous "Rainbow Farm" train wreck, and I am more then a bit surprised that Salon has produced such a ham-fisted love-letter to these unstable folks. The guns are the issue, and the threats. No, the law enforcement did not make them turn to such extremes. We cannot allow anyone to be let off the hook of personal responsibility. They decided to take up weapons, and forced a violent confrontation by their actions.

These are not counter-cultural heroes, they are yet another example of the radical militia types who are more prevalent in Michigan then one would want to even imagine (or, have you forgotten Timothy McVeigh also hailed from the Wolverine State?).

If they had remained peaceful, pot-smoking libertarians, the law enforcement types would likely have left them to stew in peace.

Guns, in the hands of increasingly violent individuals, created the debacle at Rainbow Farm. To claim anything else is to mis-read the events, with an eye toward attempting to create new martyrs for the cause.

Talk about a conclusion in search of a story. Not a good day for Salon.

Ken A. Grant