Create list/dict from string

[SoxFan44]

I was wondering if there was a way to create a list (which in this
case would contain several dicts) based on a string passed in by the
user.  Security is not an issue.  Basically I want to be able to have
the user pass in using optparse:
--actions=[{"action_name": "action_1", "val": "asdf", "val2":
"asdf"},
               {"action_name": "action_2", "val": "asdf", "val2":
"asdf"},
               {"action_name": "action_1", "val": "asdf", "val2":
"asdf"}]

And have this create a list/dict.  I'm aware of pickle, but it won't
work as far as I can tell.

Thanks.