Confirmed: DEA Head Michele Leonhart Stepping Down
By Paul Armentano, NORML
Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart is stepping down, US Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed.
Members of the US House Oversight Committee gave Leonhart a vote of “no confidence” last week after an Office of the Inspector General report revealed that senior DEA officials had participated in sex parties arranged by Colombian drug cartels and had also received weapons and cash from cartel members. None of the agents involved were fired by director Leonhart.
Michele Leonhart began serving as the agency’s acting director in November 2007 before being confirmed as DEA administrator in 2010.
Leonhart had consistently taken a hardline stance against any change in marijuana policy. Early in her tenure she oversaw dozens of federal raids on medical marijuana providers and producers in states that had legalized the plant. She set aside a verdict from the agency’s own administrative law judge that sought to expand and facilitate clinical research into marijuana as a medicine and she rejected an administrative petition calling for marijuana rescheduling hearings. She openly criticized remarks made by the President acknowledging cannabis’ relative safety compared to alcohol, and criticized the administration’s efforts to allow states to implement limited regulatory schemes for the retail production and sale of cannabis to adults. In public testimony, Leonhart refused to acknowledge whether she believed that crack cocaine, methamphetamine, or heroin posed greater risks to health than marijuana — instead opining, “All illegal drugs are bad.”
Ms. Leonhart also actively opposed hemp law reform during her time as DEA director. She criticized a decision to fly a hempen flag over the Capitol, saying it was “her lowest point in 33 years in the DEA.” Last year, her agency unlawfully seized 250 pounds of legal hemp seeds destined for Kentucky’s state Agricultural Department.
Always a true believer in the drug war no matter what the costs, in 2009 she described increased southern border violence as a sign of the “success” of her agency’s anti-drug strategies.
Michele Leonhart is expected to leave the agency in mid-May.
steve baranick
Why can’t we get someone to tell the truth about marijuana everyone knows that it is not a killer like alcohol,nicotine,or any other bad drug,when Mr Piper or whoever ask these questions to people in charge all the sudden they get amnesia why?When Mr.Piper ask simple questions she would not tell the truth,and this issue with the cartels the agents should be dealt with,do they realize what they have done to our country,,,sad day’s
Anonymous
Thank God this insane Bi#@h is bailing out. If there was any genuine justice, she would be prosecuted. It,’s time for all who believe in the principals this country was founded on to be contacting their elected officials and expressing their outrage at people(?) such as this fascist continuing to hold positions that allow them to impose their personal brand of lunacy over our lives. This creep is no better than any of the hierarchy of the Third Reich!