MARIJUANA ADVOCATE VOCAL AFTER ARREST

She Denies Having Substance at Her Home

ALEXANDER CITY Loretta Lynn Nall is an unlikely political activist.
With her at-home candle business, Stevie Nicks hairdo, and
kitchen-table computer, the mother of two is truly grassroots,
especially the grass part.

In October, Nall founded the Alabama Marijuana Party, a political
action committee trying to loosen marijuana laws and raise awareness
about the plant's medicinal benefits.

"I'm a common country girl. I have big ideas and opinions," she says.
"And a big mouth."

Nall and her family live in the backwoods of Tallapoosa County, hardly
a hotbed for the cause. So she was quite pleased when her letters to
the editor began appearing in Alabama newspapers.

"We are not criminals who rob, steal or otherwise cause harm to the
fabric of society, and it is time to stop treating us as if we were,"
Nall wrote. The Birmingham News published a letter Nov. 7.

Six days later, eight agents with the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task
Force converged on Nall's home and took her to jail.

Court records say the agents found about $20 worth of marijuana. They
confiscated rolling papers, a set of scales, some magazines and
unknown "leafy substances" from the freezer.

Marijuana Possession:

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; legalization activists know better, she said.

Equally upsetting to Nall, she said authorities targeted her because
of her advocacy. "I think they would love to come in here and take me
away and shut me up," she said.

It was her first arrest.

At a court hearing, she perused the search warrant request that drug
agents used to secure a judge's permission to search her trailer. It
noted the letter to the editor, Nall said, and it included a comment
that her kindergarten daughter Isabella made in school about leaves
hanging from the walls of her home, plants that she couldn't bring to
class.

Eric McCain, a Sheriff's Department Investigator who works in the
Tallapoosa County schools, secured the search warrant. McCain said the
warrant was not based on Nall's letter. "Of course, it (the letter)
didn't help her out any," he said. "It didn't make or break her ... We
just used that to put in our file." He would not give details about
where the information for the search warrant came from. It's not
unusual for drug agents to rely on confidential sources.

Arrest Energized Her:

In a sense, the arrest has energized Nall, 28, and her husband, Terry,
36, an ex-Army man. He's the Marijuana Party's behind-the-scenes Web
site guru.

"We had lives. But now this is our life. It's consumed us," Terry Nall
said. The Nalls grew up in Ashland. They lived in Germany and Texas,
during his stint in the Army. They returned to Alabama to be close to
family. Much of her support comes from Canadian activists.

Loretta Nall said her views on marijuana were shaped, in part, by her
brother's experience. An alcoholic, Randy Sapp, 35, has been in and
out of jail for alcohol-fueled crimes.

"For work release, they put him to loading Budweiser trucks," Nall
said. That didn't work out so well.

Sapp, back home in Ashland, is frank about his addictions. "If
marijuana was legal, I would never pick up another drop of alcohol,"
he said.

While voters in California and Nevada have tried to legalize marijuana
for medical use, or in small quantities, Nall is dangling on the outer
edge of the fringe in Alabama.

"Loretta's been far more vocal in the middle of the desert," said Ben
Power, 53, president of the Florida Marijuana Party.

Power, who suffers from congestive heart failure, said he uses
marijuana to dilate his blood vessels. His son is a sheriff's deputy,
and drug agents have never targeted his West Palm Beach home.

"I just think it's a lot easier in places like Miami, West Palm and
Key West, where ideas might be a tad more progressive than in
Alexander City," Power said.

Considers Moving:

Nall is considering moving to Montgomery. She's alarmed that law
enforcement officials question her 6-year-old daughter at school. The
Nalls also have a 10-year-old son.

They would hate to leave their two acres, the chickens, guineas,
goose, St. Bernard and cat named Catfish.

Terry Nall experiments with native landscaping plants and medicinal
herbs. Plants in pots and cups and buckets are spread all over their
yard and trailer. Some of the "green leafy substance" that deputies
confiscated for tests in the state forensics lab had been cut up and
left to dry on a plate, said Tallapoosa County Investigator Fred White.

"That's kind of abnormal," he said.

The Nalls predict the cuttings will turn up positive for geraniums and
catnip. Even as deputies searched her property last fall, Loretta Nall
could not contain her proselytizing. She told them marijuana was harmless.

A black deputy reminded her that it's still illegal in the Alabama.
She kept talking. "I told him that at one time it was illegal to help
a slave to freedom in the state of Alabama."