dun,

If weed is really so "harmless", what does anyone have to fear here? Set your stand right next to it, it won't hurt you, right?

Problem is, the guy in the beater car might think it's valuable enough to defend, and probably doesn't want to get caught doing something that could throw him in the can, so you might want to fear him.

Supply and demand. He wouldn't grow it if someone else weren't smoking it and paying him for it. If you smoke weed....you share responsibility for all the bad things that go on during its production - and that includes the fear our friend here has, thanks to stumbling onto this - and he hasn't even reported it yet.