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DEA Chief Slams Obama For Pot Remarks: Reports
Posted by CN Staff on January 26, 2014 at 07:06:34 PT
By Ryan Grim and Matt Sledge
Source: Huffington Post
Washington, D.C. -- The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration slammed President Barack Obama this week for saying marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol, according to a report Saturday in the Boston Herald.DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart reportedly told a group of sheriffs at a closed-door conference in Washington that she was frustrated by the administration's recent openness toward state legalization. Although Leonhart's remarks were not made publicly, her pointed references to the president could put her job in jeopardy.
"She was honest," Mike H. Leidholt, president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, told the Herald. “She may get fired. But she was honest.”The administration so far has shown itself willing to let Colorado's and Washington's experiments with marijuana legalization move ahead. But those baby steps toward respecting state legislation appear to have sown dissension at the DEA.Leonhart, a former Baltimore cop and long-time DEA agent before ascending to the agency's top role, staunchly opposes mainstreaming marijuana use. In 2012 House Judiciary testimony, she refused to answer a question from Colorado Rep. Jared Polis (D) about whether she thought crack or heroin were worse for a person's health than marijuana. She said in December that legalization sends "mixed messages" to high-schoolers, and this month, one of her top deputies told Congress that legalization is "reckless and irresponsible."Leonhart also appears to have been upset by a flag made of hemp that flew over the U.S. Capitol on July 4 at the behest of Polis.Bristol County, Mass., Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson told the Herald that "she said her lowest point in 33 years in the DEA was when she learned they’d flown a hemp flag over the Capitol on July 4. The sheriffs were all shocked. This is the first time in 28 years I’ve ever heard anyone in her position be this candid.” The flag was made with industrial hemp, which is not a drug. "This shows how shockingly out of touch Michele Leonhart is," Polis told HuffPost in an email Saturday. "You would think that one of her lowest points would have been when she completely embarrassed herself by failing to state the obvious scientific fact that marijuana is less harmful and addictive than heroin. Almost half a million Americans saw her make a fool of herself."A DEA spokeswoman contacted by the Herald did not comment on Leonhart's remarks, but reiterated the agency's opposition to legalization. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.Aside from Obama's statements, it also appears that Leonhart was incensed that the unofficial White House softball team squared off against a marijuana reformers' team in a game covered exclusively by HuffPost. The White House staffers lost.Tom Angell, founder of the reform group Marijuana Majority, told HuffPost in an email that he doesn't expect Leonhart to be fired for her "insubordinate speech.""But in light of the president's newfound boldness in speaking out about the unfairness of marijuana prohibition enforcement, he should take the opportunity to significantly reform federal marijuana policy and rearrange the agencies that have mismanaged it for so long," he said.Newshawk: runruffSource: Huffington Post (NY) Author: Ryan Grim and Matt Sledge Published: January 25, 2014Copyright: 2014 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC Contact: scoop huffingtonpost.comWebsite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/94jedFvRCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by Oleg the Tumor on January 30, 2014 at 07:50:44 PT:
Mickey was a Baltimore Cop?
Now I understand the Age in which We live.If you are a demonstrator, the last thing you want to see arriving are busloads of Baltimore cops.
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Comment #12 posted by runruff on January 27, 2014 at 14:31:08 PT
Your laugh of the day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rhQC1Ec2zo-Michele with dubbed voice.
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Comment #11 posted by Universer on January 26, 2014 at 20:56:04 PT
Bravo, Hope
Your link to that Boston Globe piece, http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/01/26/this-your-language-cannabis/9bguslv7ZkSsHTElfANTTN/story.html, is very necessary, as is the piece itself.Language is everything. Language is key. Language is paramount. Our words are the elements we use to construct the compounds of our thoughts, and if a word sounds bad or dirty or evil, that connotation will be communicated along with the meaning. Nowhere is this Orwellian concept more in evidence than with the ugly word "mare-uh-wanna."It was a word chosen to demonize. It sounds unclean, and untrustable, and foreign. It comes directly from Mexican slang and it just sounds bad in the mouth. Even today, I cringe that this word is used in common parlance, on news shows and even in legalspeak. It shouldn't be. We might as well revise our law schools' textbooks to say "booze" instead of "alcohol."I for one strongly propone we always use the term "cannabis." Because that's what it is. That's what it's always been. That's the proper botanical term, and that's the origin of the word "canvas." Cannabis is a beautiful word, a right word, a word that sounds fluid and honorable and proper."Marijuana," my friends, as you know, is not a real word. (Indeed, it's a slave name.)Oh - and never, ever, EVER, "dope." That hasn't worked since the '60s. If then.FoM knows this, of course - hence this website is CannabisNews.com and not MarijuanaNews or other. (Of course, her name really ought to be FoC or something ... but that's personal choice - and I can see how "FoC" might not spell exactly what one would want.)
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on January 26, 2014 at 20:16:03 PT
Her lowest point in 33 years in the DEA?
You would have thought the deaths of Ashley Villarreal or Alberto Sepulveda might have qualified as lower points in her career than what fabric was used in any flag, anywhere.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on January 26, 2014 at 20:14:57 PT
Obama knew what he was doing appointing Leonheart
To best illuminate a destructive and vindictive organization with terroristic actions it would have been foolish to appoint anyone other than one who best epitomized the dysfunction. Michele Leonheart was the poster child for this dysfunction.It hasn't been Obama busting people over the last few years, it's been Michele Leonheart and her goon squad at the DEA. There could have been no more effective way to allow these criminals to bring themselves down than giving them enough free reign to be their evil selves, which in effect was like giving them enough extra rope in order for them to hang themselves. The gurgling sounds you are hearing are the last desperate gasps from a rapidly dying DEA.We have become so used to bombastic bullies for our politicians that we sometimes have a hard time spotting intelligence and thoughtfulness. I've always felt Obama represents the latter. The more I witness the more I'm certain of it.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #8 posted by runruff on January 26, 2014 at 19:02:09 PT
Rep. Polis said "she was making a fool of herself&
I disagree. She was a fool being herself.
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on January 26, 2014 at 14:11:16 PT
Go away, Leonhart.
I'm pleased Polis is My Congressman."This shows how shockingly out of touch Michele Leonhart is," Polis told HuffPost in an email Saturday. "You would think that one of her lowest points would have been when she completely embarrassed herself by failing to state the obvious scientific fact that marijuana is less harmful and addictive than heroin. Almost half a million Americans saw her make a fool of herself."
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on January 26, 2014 at 14:00:03 PT
Leonhart
She and her cohorts are apparently, deeply, seriously brainwashed.They look at what is happening with these epileptic children and they say, and apparently believe, that "Legalizers are using sick children as a ploy to legalize marijuana". Leonhart seems, somehow, rendered, perhaps by misplaced zeal, unable to accept what is going on all around her. It's real. It's happening. Nobody is making this up, Michelle... for any reason.That flag story is just pitiful.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on January 26, 2014 at 13:19:17 PT
Interesting.
Ten Photos Of When Marijuana Grew All Over Brooklyn, And The Men Who Destroyed It Allhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/25/brooklyn-marijuana_n_4665886.htmlBill filed to legalize marijuana in Oklahomahttp://newsok.com/bill-filed-to-legalize-marijuana-in-oklahoma/article/3927283This is your language on cannabis
As marijuana goes legit, our words for it are changing, toohttp://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/01/26/this-your-language-cannabis/9bguslv7ZkSsHTElfANTTN/story.html
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Comment #4 posted by Oleg the Tumor on January 26, 2014 at 11:51:18 PT:
Will Mickey write a tell all book?
"I was betrayed by my country!" She will claim.Get in line, Lady.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on January 26, 2014 at 11:10:18 PT
It's tragic that Leonhart seems
to have sold herself, heart, soul, and mind, to the government for money, power, and prestige in certain circles.Children with epilepsy waiting for medical marijuana
Could be an answer for affliction, but it’s not here yethttp://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/01/26/children-with-epilepsy-forced-wait-for-medical-marijuana/rslCgjrrId8mJ3SkZJUWKI/story.html
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Comment #2 posted by schmeff on January 26, 2014 at 09:13:30 PT
Lost and Out of Touch
Lyin'heart doesn't like a hemp flag? I guess this would explain her contempt of the Constitution. I expect she'd say it isn't worth the hemp it's printed on.
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Comment #1 posted by Vincent on January 26, 2014 at 08:33:19 PT:
DEA Chief
"She refused to answer a question from Colorado Rep. Jared Polis (D) about whether she thought crack or heroin were worse for a person's health than marijuana"That just shows that she is unfit for this job...she was more concerned with "winning" the argument than she was with doing the right thing. President Obama should DEFINITELY fire her. I would!
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