Pubdate: Tue, 29 Apr 2003
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.fyiottawa.com/ottsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Jason Botchford, Ottawa Sun

'WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS'

The Ku Klux Klan recently received a permit to hold a rally in Montgomery, 
Ala. A pro-marijuana lobby group was denied.

For Alabama marijuana activist Loretta Nall that summarizes everything that 
is wrong with the way state 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 changed her life.

"We smoke pot, we are not criminals, we aren't hurting anyone," the 
28-year-old Nall says.

"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, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency 
agents arrived at her doorstep for the first time, on foot and in helicopters.

STATE TARGET

"Our life was so perfect before those helicopters, before the police came 
here," says Nall's six-year-old daughter, Belle.

The family had become a target of a state task force against marijuana.

"I don't know why they came, it was out of the blue, it was all of a 
sudden," says 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, in a trailer with 
her two young children, Alex and Belle, and her husband Terry.

The family takes care of chickens, 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 change.

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. Six days after one her letters was 
printed in the Birmingham News, Nall was arrested by the Tallapoosa County 
Narcotics Task Force. The search 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 
says.

"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."

DENIES CHARGES

Court records say the agents found 5 grams of marijuana. They confiscated 
rolling papers, triple beam scales, 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 misdemeanour marijuana possession and possession of 
drug paraphernalia. She is out on bond and denies having any marijuana in 
her trailer.

Nall says she's sure she was targeted her because of her advocacy.

She adds that 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 says. "That's 
what I want to do, seriously."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom