YES TO KLAN, NO TO DOPERS

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

For activist Loretta Nall, that sums up what's wrong with the way Alabama
lawmakers view marijuana.

Nall learned political 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 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, agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency
arrived at her door on foot and overhead in helicopters.

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

"I don't know why they came; it was out of the blue," said Nall. "I'm an
activist; I would never grow anything on my property. But they were after me."

Nall lives deep in the woods in a trailer with her two children, Alex and
Belle, and her husband Terry.

The sight of helicopters circling her home convinced her things had to change.

A month later, she founded the Alabama Marijuana Party, a committee trying
to loosen marijuana laws and raise awareness about the plant's medicinal
benefits. There are 30 members.

She began a letter 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. Nall said she is sure she was
targeted because of her advocacy.

Court records say the agents found five grams of marijuana. Nell said she
plans to fight the charge, then use her political action committee to run
for sheriff.