American Notes NORTH CAROLINA

With an estimated value of $1.5 billion annually, marijuana has surpassed tobacco as North Carolina's top cash crop. In an attempt to slow down the harvest, some landowners in the Tar Heel State last week began posting signs with the slogan MARIJUANA WATCH near the remote fields where pot is grown. The idea is to show that the owners are cooperating with lawmen, thereby avoiding possible seizure of their property if marijuana is found on it.

Though many landowners are enthusiastic about the scheme, the American Civil Liberties Union is concerned that it could undermine the Bill of Rights. A.C.L.U. lawyer William Simpson is worried about citizens' abandoning their constitutional protections in their haste to join the war on drugs. Says Simpson: "What are politicians going to tell people when the Constitution is gone and we still have a drug problem?"