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