Pubdate: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB) Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.fyiwinnipeg.com/winsun.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503 Author: Jason Botchford Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) 'WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS' The Ku Klux Klan recently received a permit needed to hold a rally in Montgomery, Ala. A pro-marijuana lobby group was denied. For Alabama marijuana activist Loretta Nall that, in a nutshell, summarizes everything which is wrong with the way Alabama lawmakers view marijuana. Last fall, Nall learned political activist strategies from a trip to Canada where she met Marc Emery, the Canadian millionaire dubbed "The Prince of Pot" for his role in this country's marijuana movement. The trip to Canada changed her life. "We smoke pot, we are not criminals, we aren't hurting anyone," Nall, 28, said. "I know a lot of people who smoke pot and they are not bad people. I decided to do something about it." A week after her visit to Canada, just as she was preparing to go public with a pro-marijuana lobby group in Alabama, Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrived at her doorstep for the first time, on foot and in helicopters. "Our life was so perfect before those helicopters, before the police came here," Nall's six-year-old daughter Belle said. The family had become a target of the state task force against marijuana. "I don't know why they came, it was out of the blue, it was all of a sudden," said Nall after butting out a joint. "I'm an activist, I would never grow anything on my property. But they were after me." Nall lives deep in the backwoods of the American south. She lives in a trailer with her two young children Alex and Belle and her husband Terry. The family takes care of chickens, guineas, a goose, a St. Bernard and a cat named Catfish on a two-acre plot of land. Nall is strong-willed and the sight of helicopters circling her property convinced her things in Alabama had to be changed. A month later, she founded the Alabama Marijuana Party, a political action committee trying to loosen marijuana laws and raise awareness about the plant's medicinal benefits. There are 30 members. She began a letter-writing campaign. One of those letters was printed in the Birmingham News on Nov. 7. Six days later, Nall was arrested by the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force. The warrant notes her letter to the newspaper. "I was out looking for jobs in Alex City and when we come back there were six or seven police cars all up and down the driveway, there were men in flak jackets, armed, cops, people were everywhere, inside the house," Nall said. "I asked them what the hell was going on. They had no reason to be here. They said they had a warrant. They claimed they found marijuana." Court records say the agents found five grams of marijuana. They confiscated rolling papers, triple beam scales, some magazines and what court records refer to as "leafy substances" from the freezer. They took her to jail for nine hours. Nall was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. She is out on bond and denies having any marijuana in her trailer. Nall said she is sure she was targeted because of her advocacy. She said she plans to fight the charge, then use her political action committee to run for the local sheriff's department. "I'm going to fire any cop who arrests a pot smoker," Nall said. "That's what I want to do, seriously." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh