rick

After a 15-month legal battle, authorities in Alexander City on Tuesday convicted a marijuana legalization activist for possession of less than a gram of the drug and some paraphernalia.

Loretta Nall, who founded the U.S. Marijuana Party in 2002, was given a 30-day suspended sentence for the misdemeanors, and ordered to pay several hundred dollars in fines. She immediately filed a notice to appeal.

Nall and her attorney argued that the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force illegally obtained the search warrant that resulted in her arrest.

Members of the drug squad raided her mobile home Nov. 13, 2002, based on statements her kindergarten daughter made in school about plants. Officers also used as evidence for the search warrant a letter to the editor published in The Birmingham News. Signed by Nall, the Nov. 7, 2002, letter calls for marijuana users to come out of the closet and change laws against it.

Tallapoosa County District Judge Kim Taylor, who signed the search warrant and presided over Tuesday's trial, refused to throw out the warrant and found Nall guilty.

Efforts Wednesday to reach Taylor failed.

Nall, who maintains her innocence, said it was wrong for police to target her because she speaks out on an issue.

"I have every right to say that the drug laws in this state are unjust," Nall said in an interview Wednesday. "American laws are based on vigorous and public debate, and the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force has taken it upon themselves to decide what the citizens of Alabama can and cannot write on the editorial page."

Efforts Wednesday to reach members of the task force were unsuccessful.

Damon Lewis, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said it would be improper for him to comment with an appeal pending.

The drug paraphernalia for which Nall was convicted included cigarette rolling papers and a scale. Police confiscated from her home a plastic bag of "plant material," which tested negative for drugs. Nall's husband is a horticulturist and grew the catnip in the bag. Police also confiscated some burned cigarette papers containing "plant material" which tested positive for controlled substances. The total amount of marijuana weighed .87 grams, according to a report from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

Nall, who speaks at marijuana legalization rallies across the United States and in Canada, said she expected the conviction because she is so vocal, and will continue to fight for changes in drug laws.

"How many thousands of people are in jail in this state because of justice like this?" she asked.

Her daughter, who is now 6, remains a student at Horseshoe Bend school, where testimony from former school resource officer Eric McCain helped convict Nall.

The girl was working on a project that required her to bring leaves to school. The officer said the child told her teacher that some of the leaves at her house were illegal, according to the search warrant affidavit.

Horseshoe Bend Principal Roger Swann said he was not aware of any other parents being convicted based on their children's conversations with school cops. He said he thought the officer acted appropriately.

"If he happens to get information that could possibly involve any type of illegal activity, it's his duty to act on that," Swann said.

Loretta Nall
President, US Marijuana Party
www.usmjparty.com
President, Alabama Marijuana Party
http://tv.alabama.usmjparty.com
Pot TV News Anchor
www.pottv.net


CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer

(Loretta, won't you please sign up for an account?)

__________________

stranger

dont pay that bs fine for such an outrageous finding...appeal and then counter sue

Higher Self

Loretta, I'm sorry this whole debacle has transpired in your life. Everything happens for a reason though, and now that it has, I hope you will take the opportunity to turn your situation around through appeal. Given your activist status, you ought to be able to create something very positive as an outcome. Expose the outragous behavoiurs, especially the indignit , indifference, these callus law enforcement/judical personel have displayed.

In your personal posting, you asked, how many others have experience these kinds of indignities?... and the answer is, hundreds upon thousands, perhaps millions of regular, decent, folks have been subjected to similar circumstances. It gets even worse for those arrested for, and charged with felony marijuana crimes.

This needs to be addressed. Standard operating procedure in felony arrests include body cavity searches. Nonconscentual penetration of private areas is an incredibly demeaning, humuliating experience for anyone to have to go through. It's the equivelant of social rape. 'Arrestees' are treated as things, not people.

The differences between felony and midemeanor charges vary from state to state, but frequently, fairly ordinary folks get caught up in the system, for fairly benign 'crimes'. For example, say a person goes to pick up an ounce of marijuana that he intends to share with three other friends, and while driving back home, that person gets pulled over because of burned out tail light or something. The situation escalates, and the next thing you know, this unwitting soul finds themselves in a very precarious situaton... This is a hypothetical scenario, but a very real situation. People 'branded' as drug dealers are then treated like henious criminals. The laws do not sufficiently differentiate between someone acting on behalf of a group of friends, and a large scale, profit motivated drug dealer.

Criminalizing otherwise productive, descent people is counter-productive to creating a cohesive fabric to society. The emotional impact created by 'victims' of the system has a rippling effect, which permeates to friends and families compounding problems even further. The aggregate effect carries enormous social costs... These things need to change.

Sometimes it's the shadow which defines the light. Use your personal circumstance to help institute change from within the system. This has been a bitter pill thus far. Sometimes it difficult to have empathy for others unless you have some life experience upon which to draw from. Hence, my seemingly indifferent comment last week that 'this oughta stir the 'pot'.

The reality is, we all care, or I wouldnt be writing this, and whomever is reading this would be doing something else...

Good 'luck' with your appeal.

Dennis

Loretta, It sounds to me like you have the ammunition to knock the District Judge and Prosecutor off their high horse and bring them down to reality. It also sounds like you may have a civil suit against the law enforcement agency who pursued this action illegally against you. Go get 'em. If they get burned enough, they'll back off.

Dennis

Logos

Good luck Loretta, give em hell!

__________________
Brother Logos
The more I learn, the less I know. | Truth doesn't change, only our perception of it does.
THC Ministry | The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ | The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion
True religion is real living, living with all one's soul, with all ones goodness and righteousness. --Albert Einstein

Johnyapplseed

I just don't know what to say. How can some thing like this happen when people are being murdered, raped, robbed etc. and they find this sort of thing to be a posative use of there assets? Just think the time and man power as well as funding to put together and maintain such a contrived case.
It's like a house of cards they built, Loretta knock it down and scatter them everywhere!!

Loretta Nall

This article has the judge lying to the press, or at the very least showing just excatly how much attention he was paying in that court room. Everything he says is factually inaccurate and this will be proven by the transcript I am waiting on.

I love the fact that I called him brainless and they sorta said that.

Thank all of you for your positive comments. I will fight this war until they either kill me to shut me up or we have full legalization in this country.
All they succeeded in doing in court this week was to hang themselves and add more gasoline to an already out of control fire.

The next election season in this town is going to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys on acid.
Stay tuned to find out just how brutal politics can be.

Marijuana Party founder charged with possession

By Stepanie Rebman
http://www.alexcityoutlook.com/artic...ews/news04.txt


Loretta Nall, Alexander City resident and founder of the Alabama Marijuana Party, was convicted on Tuesday for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia charges.

Tallapoosa County District Judge Kim Taylor sentenced Nall to a 30-day suspended sentence over 12 months and a year of unsupervised probation. Nall has already appealed the conviction and her case could be heard by a jury trial in an upcoming court session.

Nall's conviction stems from the November 2002 raid of her Pearson Chapel Road home by the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force where Taylor said they found marijuana seeds, a scale and rolling paper.

"They did find marijuana in her residence," he said. "They found scales in the house, which qualifies as drug paraphernalia, and rolling paper consistent with the roaches they found."

Nall said her home was searched immediately after she wrote a letter that was published in the Birmingham News regarding drug law reform. She said she hopes her appeal of the conviction will show how she is a victim and not an offender.

"The Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force wants to shut down free and public debate about our state's current drug policy so they can protect their cash count," she said. "I'm hoping for absolute acquittal in this case. I hope I get an elected officer who shows some brains and shows how the warrant was faulty and everything was fabricated."


Taylor said he signed the warrant to search her home after an officer received information linking marijuana to Nall's home.

"Her daughter had leaves at school for a project and stated that she had other leaves she wanted to bring but her mother said those leaves are illegal," Taylor said.

Nall said that information is merely a claim made by an officer and testimony at her trial revealed the police did not have their stories straight. She said the testimony from narcotics officers was inaccurate.

"They claimed they found five grams or $20 worth," she said. "In court, they had a couple of seeds, a stem and dust, which was only 0.87 grams, not even one gram. In court, they contradicted a great deal of testimony."

Taylor said Nall received 30 days on both charges suspended over 12 months and has a $250 fine. He did not sentence her to any jail time or fines on paraphernalia charges.

However, with the appeal, if a jury finds Nall guilty, she could face up to 12 months in jail.

Reverend_Lilli

Go get them woman. I have enjoyed your pot tv spots. Were praying for you
and all our brothers and sisters in prisons for this God given herb. This maddness has to stop.
I pass to you the torch that Christ once passed to me, others are still in the dark an need the light to see.
www.missouri-thc-ministries.tk
Your green sista Reverend lilli

WNB

Why appeal? You got off with no jail time and no probation, which is more than most people get away with. I realize that this is in part because they based the warrent on your political opinion, which is a deffinate gestapo tactic, but why not quit when you're ahead?

__________________
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Loretta Nall

Because they are WRONG and I am RIGHT.
If I let them get away with what they have done then no one writing a letter to the editor is safe.
****'em
I WILL WIN
ANd they will PAY for what they have done.

People following the advice you just gave to me is a LARGE part of the reason the cannabis community is in this horrible situation.
You never give in to them.
Never stop fighting against the injustice.

Besides...they involved my children in this and for any self-respecting mother that means an all out WAR

Which is exactly what they will get.