MMJ advocacy groups urge Obama to withdraw nomination of Michele Leonhart to DEA

[XOKCowboy]

OK President Obama. Here's another chance to do the right thing. Rein in the DEA. The first step is to replace Leonhart with someone who pays attention to what your AG says!

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0724/marijuana-advocacy-groups-urge-obama-withdraw-nomination-michele-leonhart/

A number of medical marijuana advocacy organizations are urging President Obama to withdraw his nomination of Michele Leonhart to serve as the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Leonhart was nominated to be the Deputy Administrator by President Bush in 2003 and confirmed by the Senate in 2004. She has been the acting Administrator of the DEA since the former Administrator, Karen P. Tandy, resigned in November of 2007.

snip

According to a joint press release issued on Wednesday, these groups claim Leonhart "has not demonstrated that she is capable of leading the agency in a thoughtful manner at a time when 14 states have enacted medical marijuana laws and science is increasingly confirming the therapeutic benefits of the substance."

Of concern to these groups, under Leonhart's administration, the DEA has raided a number of legal medical marijuana growers and dispensaries. In one case, the DEA raided the very first person to register for a medical marijuana cultivation permit, a sixty-nine year old woman from Mendocino County in California, even though her personal marijuana garden had been inspected and approved by the local sheriff.

The DEA needs marijuana to be completely illegal to justify their huge budget and to continue "The War On Drugs". Without it their budget would be cut and staff gutted. Gotta protect our phoney baloney jobs here gentlemen! Harumph!

[meow mix]

1. another bushite... why am i not suprised? conservative manchurain strikes again

blah.

[XOKCowboy]

2. I'd be happy if they just cut funding for the DEA

and abolished it as a government agency. The "War On Drugs" has been ongoing since the early 70s and is a total failure. It's 2009 Budget was $2.6 BILLION dollars. http://www.justice.gov/dea/agency/staffing.htm

For all that money what have we received? A black market drug trade that has killed millions of people but has failed to stem the flow of drugs into this country and a very profitable private prison system in the US that is fed by low level drug dealers and even lower level drug users.

I'd be very happy if that $2.6 Billion a year (and rising) would go toward providing some decent health care, build a few schools and roads or just help balance the budget. All better uses of the money that what it's going for now.

Rant over