Raoul, as you may recall, was moving across the country, and as a result had countless cases, satchels, garment bags, boxes and suitcases, which the deputy began to search through. When he abandoned the search half an hour later, he had pawed through a scant half of the total amount of stuff in the car. The most incriminating thing he had found were books-on-tape versions of William S. Burroughs' Junky and Hunter S. Thompson's Tales of the Doomed. Raoul later said he registered no recognition of these articles, however.

At one point Raoul got his camera out and took a picture of me through the windshield of the car. Then he aimed the lens at the deputy, who became annoyed and told Raoul to stand back. Then he told his uniform to take the camera and keep an eye on Raoul.

The search over, the deputy came over and opened the passenger door. I tried to assess his mood. I tried to explain to him the logic of the situation. "I do not use drugs, and I had no intention of taking any of the plants here. My interest in the plants was purely botanical. If you take me in you'll be wasting the court system's time and greatly inconveniencing me."

"You can tell the judge all that. I'm taking you in," he said amiably.

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