Now I know why helicopters fly over me

Your [October 13 cover story: "Reefer madness? Copter and SWAT team weeded out 2 plants on their property"] finally answered a question I've had for more than a quarter of a century: Why were helicopters coming low over my yard looking for marijuana?

As someone who’s never so much as touched a cigarette, never mind pot, I found this situation very perplexing. It had never occurred to me that my greenhouse sent a signal– an erroneous one– to law enforcement that illicit behavior was likely to be taking place on my property.

You quote Jeff Scott of the DEA as saying that if a greenhouse is in a backyard, it's not indicative of anything but that if it's in the middle of nowhere, it could be indicative of something.

What kind of commentary is this on our country when a law-abiding citizen can't engage in a perfectly innocent activity (growing plants) in a legal structure, according to Mr. Scott, without being spied upon?

It’s an extreme annoyance having a helicopter flying low over your home (it is really loud). And think of the taxpayer cost to finance these helicopter forays.

It might make sense to fly over our national forests to keep these lands from being used as pot farms. But flying repeatedly over someone’s home— where no specific evidence exists of illegal activity— is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

It’s too bad that the Tea Party, whose original intent was to rail against this kind of government waste, is instead spending its time complaining about such things as ICLEI in Albemarle County  and manatee protections in Florida.

Marlene A. Condon
Crozet