'WE AREN'T HURTING ANYONE'

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

For Alabama marijuana activist Loretta Nall that, in a nutshell, summarizes
everything which is wrong with the way Alabama 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 to Canada changed her life.

"We smoke pot, we are not criminals, we aren't hurting anyone," Nall, 28,
said. "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, Drug Enforcement Agency agents
arrived at her doorstep for the first time, on foot and in helicopters.

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

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

"I don't know why they came, it was out of the blue, it was all of a
sudden," said 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. She lives in a
trailer with her two young children, Alex and Belle, and her husband,
Terry. The family takes care of chickens, guinea pigs, 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 be changed.

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. 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. 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 said.

"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."

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

Nall said she is sure she was targeted her because of her advocacy.

She said 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 said. "That's
what I want to do, seriously."