MARIJUANA ACTIVIST: POLICE PERSECUTING ME FOR BELIEFS

My Turn

I returned home from town Wednesday to find law enforcement officers
swarming all over my property and inside my home. They claimed to have
obtained the warrant via a phone-in tip that I was growing marijuana. I do
not believe this to be the case. Until Wednesday, I had never been arrested
for marijuana in any context. I am not growing marijuana and so there
really is no one to tip them off. I do not have any enemies that I am aware
of. No one ever really comes to my home other than family members.

I feel I have been targeted because I founded the Alabama Marijuana Party.
That is the only known association I have with marijuana. They have no
other reason to suspect me. This is an infringement on my First Amendment
right to free speech. In my home they found one stem and approximately
three marijuana seeds. I had cleaned my home thoroughly before becoming a
public activist and I know there was nothing here. They came inside my home
while I was away, and as far as I am concerned, it could have been planted
as a way to get back at me for two failed raids since September of this
year. I was arrested and jailed until 1 a.m. Thursday. My husband was told
to call the sheriff's office at 5 p.m. and that it was a misdemeanor charge
and I would be allowed out on a signature bond. However, he called at 5
p.m. and was told it was a felony but that I wasn't there yet, when I
actually was. He called back at 5:30 p.m. and was told it was a misdemeanor
charge but that a property bond would be required to get me out.

From the very beginning, they told me I would be released on a signature
bond. I asked the booking officers if everyone in the jail knew that I
could be released on a signature bond, and I was told yes and that any
calls about me would be transferred directly to their desk. This did not
happen.

At 9 p.m. I was put into general population because I was told no one had
called about getting me out. I was able to make one call. At 1 a.m. my
husband finally got word via a friend that I could come home and all he had
to do was sign for my release.

They also confiscated my letter to the editor that was published in The
Birmingham News on Nov. 7, my Cannabis Culture magazines and some activist
brochures. They threw my photo albums around, sifted through the ashes of
my deceased child and read some of my writings in various notebooks.

One officer remarked, "All famous activists go to jail at least once." He
said this before I said anything about being an activist, which
corroborates my theory that they targeted me for my views and political
affiliation.

They forced me to take my children to a relative's home some 50 miles away
until further notice. The Department of Human Resources was called and they
interrogated my children unmercifully.

My daughter was told she had pretty hair and asked who brushed it. She
responded that I (mommy) did. She was then asked if it hurt. She was
shocked and said, "No!" Then she was asked again four more times if it hurt
until she said, "Well, sometimes."

My son was asked if he ever saw me rolling or smoking anything other than
regular tobacco cigarettes to which he replied, "No!" He was then asked if
he got porn ads in his e-mail. He responded that he sometimes does, but
that it wasn't our fault.

He told them he signed up for a Yahoo account so he could get C-Toons on
Cartoon Network, and Yahoo apparently sold his address to those yucky
people who send him mail he doesn't want. What does brushing hair and porn
ads in e-mail have to do with any of this? This must not be allowed to go on.