The immediate thing you'll have is armed robberies. Now of course that
will be annexed into the city limits of Mars Hill. But there are two
things on any interstate, you deal with drugs, couriers that type
things, transportation of drugs. You're going to be coming right out of
Florida. I-95 is known as the drug pipeline. 26 [N.C.] now is going to
come, go right into 81 [N.C.], right on up too. So you're going to have
to deal with that, and then the type of crimes that are committed that
come off of interstates. Those type crimes, if you will look at most
counties, most would tell you—Sheriff Alexander or Bobby [unclear] —of some of them being a "stop and
rob." People pop off of the exit, rob the Exxon station, get back on the
exit, and they can be in South Carolina in about an hour and Tennessee
in about twenty minutes. Three different states now within an hour
radius. Who do you look for? Who do you go out here and pick up? If
somebody just stops off an exit and robs and shoots
the place up, what do you do? The drugs coming in, but not only that
just with the growth like that the hard drugs begin to come in the
county.
We're not talking about personal use marijuana, which is probably to the
point now that most law enforcement would tell you the best thing to do
is just decriminalize it. It's everywhere. I probably ought not say
that, but I've never been convinced that marijuana, personal use of
marijuana is any worse than alcohol and probably not as bad. I've got a
real problem with alcohol, alcohol especially with the way its abused,
and the way we allow it be abused for money. Marijuana is illegal, and
it's just illegal. Alcohol is just as bad, and it's legal because
there's so much money in it, and they've got lobbyist. As an ALE agent,
you tell me why we've got fifteen hundred troopers out here trying to
catch people driving drunk and a hundred and ten ALE agents trying to
stop people from selling it to them. That doesn't make sense to me. Then
that's another thing. Will we become a wet county, a county that allows
alcohol sales? Are we going to watch, since, at some point in time there
are going to be enough people move in here that we're going to realize
the money from the sales of alcohol and stuff such as that and
restaurants and stuff and if you are going to have growth, you're going
to have to be wet. We're going to have, we're already wet in Hot
Springs. Hot Springs from what I am told and what little I am able to
get out down there, especially at night and all they have some very good
bed and breakfasts and restaurants and stuff. They seem to be thriving
very well. So how long can we hold it off? How long can Mars Hill
College say, "Well, we're a Baptist college. We're not going to allow
it." How long until the retail end of it is bigger than the college,
which has always been bigger than the mainstay.