Regarding the Jan. 8 letter “Rowan youths need a dance club”:

A teen dance club could be fun and maybe profitable. But nowadays, such establishments are targets for publicity-seeking narcotics authorities.

Drug enforcement bureaucrats are systematically spreading fear and panic about “raves,” large-scale, all-night dance events that have been associated with the use of “club drugs,” particularly MDMA (Ecstasy). Relatively new, these drugs assume the role of the bogeyman for the standard propaganda technique of exploiting fear of the unknown.

While raves and Ecstasy may go together like bluegrass and moonshine whiskey, rave promoters and venue owners have been subjected to high-profile prosecution based on little more than that their events featured electronic techno-music and dazzling light shows. Against this backdrop, the arrest of one or two kids with contraband is trumped up to major narcotics conspiracy charges against the entrepreneurs.

Few such allegations have been proved, but the actions effectively shut down the events and deter others. The real purpose of this campaign is achieved when politicians dance in synchronicity to give the functionaries more funding, power and prestige.

So, teens will probably have to be content with “safe entertainment” like getting drunk and cruising the roads.

— Mett Ausley Jr.

Lake Waccamaw

Regarding the Jan. 24 story about Landis police getting the latest model of the M-16 rifle:

It’s a good thing the troopers on the New Jersey turnpike didn’t have these weapons when they sprayed a van with a hail of bullets during a racial profiling stop (April 98). They would have certainly killed all the students inside.

This is a very bad idea. Leave the weapons made for war, and taking over countries, to the military — not the local peace officer.

— Richard Marchese

Fairfield, N.J.