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Alabama Native Takes Drug Reform Battle National

"Every state I visit, people know my name and ask for my autograph,"
Loretta Nall said. "It's weird for an Alabama house wife." Her daughter,
Bell, agrees.

"She doesn't really feel famous, even though she goes to wild places. At
our home it's kind of dirty."

Nall, an Alexander City native, has been busy the last two years.

She's rallied crowds in Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, Washington and
Canada; serves as a consultant for democratic presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich and libertarian presidential candidate Aaron Russo; and hosts a
weekly Web news program.

She even plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2006.

For now, she's president of the U.S. Marijuana Party, founded after what
Nall calls a false arrest.

The Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force raided Nall's Alexander City
mobile home Nov. 13, 2002 with a warrant based on an anonymous call and a
conversation police say Bell had with her teacher.

"They said she said there were illegal green plants hanging from the
ceiling," Nall said.

Bell, 7, insists the conversation never took place.

Nall thinks the warrant had less to do with her daughter or a tipster and
more to do with a letter she wrote to The Birmingham News, calling for drug
law reform. It was published less than a week before the raid.

"I've never grown marijuana, never sold it, and I'd never been arrested for
it," she said.

"They had no reason to come, except the letter."

The task force arrested Nall for possession of .87 grams of marijuana and
drug paraphernalia, including cigarette rolling papers and a set of scales
Nall said she used to make candles.

Nall was convicted of second degree possession of marijuana and possession
of paraphernalia in a Tallapoosa County district court Feb. 10, ending a
15-month legal battle.

She was given a 30-day suspended sentence and ordered to pay several
hundred dollars in fines.

She filed an appeal the next day, and said she plans to fight her sentence
as long as it takes.

"There's justice in Alabama, and I'm going to find it," she said.

Nall said she's working so American citizens can exercise their first
amendment right to free speech, against the intrusion of government in the
home and body, and against abuses by law enforcement.

Alabama's drug laws are among the strictest in the nation. A second
conviction, even for possession, is an automatic felony.

Nall points to prison overcrowding as one example the drug war isn't working.

"Imagine the money cities and states could save if pot smokers weren't
clogging the system," she said.

Nall founded the Alabama Marijuana Party and the U.S. Marijuana Party,
which now has 27 state chapters, after her arrest.

"I'm glad it was me," she said. "Someone's got to fight for this. It needs
to be done."

The goal is a drug-conscious politician at every level of government.

"If you have just one person at each level who is vocal, you'll see
change," she said.

Activism came naturally to Nall. Even in elementary school, she "always had
something to say."

Now, invitations to say something fill her datebook.

She recently traveled to Goose Creek, S.C., to work with families who
experienced a drug raid after a false tip led police officers to raid a
high school with guns drawn.

Last weekend Nall was in Nashville, Tenn., at a meeting of religious
leaders for drug policy reform.

Tuesday she was at Auburn, talking about marijuana for Russo's campaign,
and Wednesday she left for Vancouver, home base of pot-tv.net. "(Pot TV) is
starting live broadcasting, and I'm going up to do a couple of shows," she
said. "Should be interesting."

Nall has a weekly show, broadcast on the site, which she records at her
trailer in front of a blue sheet suspended by tent poles and clothes pins.

"It's interesting what you can find in a trailer."

Nall's husband helps her edit story lines and film her segments, and he
takes care of the children when she travels.

"He wants to see an end to the drug war as much as I do," she said.

Nall has spoken to almost every state news outlet, even to Rolling Stone
and Cannabis Culture magazines.

It doesn't matter, she said, what happens to her, as long as someone, some
other time, doesn't have to go through it again.

Until then, she has a plane to catch, two children to raise and a message
for America.