Community | February 02, 2010 | 18 comments

Marijuana Activists Stunned Over Obama's Bush-Era Pick For DEA

source: http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/city-news/obama-dea-pick/

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underthebus
The administration of President Obama has told federal law enforcement to stand down when it comes to raiding legitimate pot dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal. But last week the president quietly nominated Bush-era Drug Enforcement Administration official Michelle Leonhart to be the agency's permanent head. He announced the former L.A. DEA office head as his pick for the organization's administrator on a day when the press corps was focused on his first State of the Union address.

"President Obama signaled more of the same in drug policy by re-appointing Bush appointee Michele Leonhart as DEA administrator," states Dale Gieringer, director of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Leonhart is unfondly regarded by medical marijuana advocates for having denied a cultivation permit to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, further impeding research into the medical uses of cannabis. Her re-appointment indicates that the administration has no interest in overruling the present indefensible policy.

Pot people are pissed. Leonhart "was the deputy administrator under Karen Tandy when Tandy conducted under the Bush administration essentially scores of raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, probably over 200," Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, told the Bay Area News Group.

But there's no overt indication the nomination is a return to the Bush-era federal investigations and busts of medical marijuana collectives. In a statement Obama praised Leonhart's "skill and dedication."
  1. groups:
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  2. tags:
    Obama,  Marijuana,  Cannabis,  Hemp,  3 more
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18 comments // Marijuana Activists Stunned Over Obama's Bush-Era Pick For DEA

  • hunzedog
    • 0
      hunzedog  

    • we need to start treating this like a war. like it or not we are on the front lines for freedom in this country. the will of the people is being ignored everywhere you look. our counrty is being run by a bunch of assholes who see us all as hosts.if i dont do my job i get fired.....we gotta stop this while we still can.

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
  • hunzedog
    • 0
      hunzedog  
    • hunzedog:

      heard that loud n clear.....fda approved drugs kill one hundred and fifty thousand every year......but google fda approved drugs kill and you wont get a nibble......

    • 2 years ago
  • N_Dank
  • robertruiz
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
    • Image

    • Opinion by Marijuana Policy Project
      (6 Days Ago) in Society / Drug Law

      By Ben Morris

      As expected, President Obama has nominated acting head of the DEA Michele Leonhart to take the post on permanently. We have been generally happy with the Justice Department during Obama’s freshman year, but it would be nice to see a new face at DEA. Here’s why.

      Early in Leonhart’s career, she was the Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Division, where she oversaw President George W. Bush’s brutal tactic of raiding and arresting medical marijuana patients. Most readers will remember the raids on dispensaries that remained a part of the former president’s war on drugs until 2009, but during the early years of the Bush administration, these raids were directed at individual patients, not just distributors. The raids were intended to send a political message and undermine emerging medical marijuana laws. Bush was smitten with Leonhart’s work fighting innocent cancer patients, and in 2003, he promoted her to deputy director.

      In that role, Leonhart rejected the application of Professor Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to research marijuana’s medical value. Professor Craker was proposing the kind of project considered essential if marijuana is ever to be licensed by the FDA as a prescription medicine, and a DEA administrative law judge ruled in Craker’s favor. Leonhart, however, ignored the judge’s ruling and denied Craker’s application. Her reasons were transparently phony: an ideological opposition to medical marijuana dressed up in pseudoscientific language. This is precisely the sort of nonsense Obama has pledged to end.

      At a news conference in April, Michele Leonhart said that legalizing drugs “would be a failed law enforcement strategy for both the U.S. and Mexico.”

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
  • freshfish
  • hunzedog
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • DEA Bad Girl Michele Leonhart
      8/5/03

      The new nominee for Deputy Administrator of the DEA is a gung-ho drug warrior with questionable ties to a discredited super-snitch.

      The Bush administration.....

      wait what ... FTW! "It's déjà vu all over again"!

    • 2 years ago
  • mr_tibbles
  • NapoleonBlownapart
    • 0
      NapoleonBlownapart  

    • I can't wait to see how the country reacts when Cali starts making a billion dollars a day after legalizing mj... and then of course everyone starts doing heroin because they've crossed the threshold. SLIPPERY SLOPE

    • 2 years ago
  • lovelander
  • Mudboy16
  • evm
    • 0
      evm  

    • don t give up the fight yet....laws are slowly changing for the better and the decrimnalation process is slowly turning...hang in there

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
    • +3
      hunzedog  

    • twice we asked for justice and twice we were turned away. i have no cheeks left to turn. looks like the war on americans is still on. I HOPE HISTORY REMEMBERS WHO STARTED IT

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • +1
      Conniepae  

    • If he continues the path of 'madness', more Americans will 'jump ship', than get 'on board'. I'll give his choice the benefit of the doubt, but I think to take peoples loyalty for granted, would be a big mistake. 'Madness' is no longer acceptable.

    • 2 years ago
  • urbanwolf
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