Obama Nominates Bush-Era Supreme Bitch To Head DEA

Obama seems to be exhibiting short-term memory loss when it comes to his stated policies on federal marijuana laws.

Last night I posted about the difficulties facing researchers who are investigating the drug ecstasy (MDMA) as a possible medical treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Shortly after writing this, I discovered some similarly unsettling news from the war on drugs front. “Last week, President Obama quietly announced that he would nominate Michele Leonhart to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency.” This is the same power-crazed, drug-hawk bitch that was “initially appointed and promoted by George W. Bush and oversaw the Bush administration’s tactic of raiding the homes of desperately ill individual medical marijuana patients in California.” This type of action flies in the face of Obama’s claim that, under his watch, the federal government would no longer “waste justice department resources” on prosecuting marijuana offenses “that circumvent state laws.” Oh how the times they are a-changin.

Here is a quote from the Washington Times from February 5th of last year in response to some of the first medical marijuana raids of Obama’s presidency:

“Drug Enforcement Administration agents this week raided four medical marijuana shops in California, contrary to President Obama’s campaign promises to stop the raids.

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of the DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.”

The irony here, of course, is that Michele Leonhart was the primary “Bush administration holdover” who was essentially "in charge of the DEA” at the time. Apparently the president wants no part in appointing new leadership to this backwards federal agency. Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention that “Ms. Leonhart also has a record of adamantly fighting against allowing scientific research of the potential medicinal value of marijuana. She is on record as “ignoring the ruling of a federal judge” in a case where she “single-handedly blocked applications from respected university researchers studying medical marijuana.” This is yet another glaring offense Leonhart has perpetrated which directly contradicts Obama’s stated position on marijuana laws.

It seems that Obama is suffering from an acute case of the “fuck-its” syndrome with regard to these issues, which is exhibited by the symptoms of just not giving a shit, combined with a touch of cowardice in the face of potentially having to navigate politically murky waters at this most turbulent time in his presidency. A look at Obama speaking about marijuana laws in 2004 vs. 2008 tells this tale much better than I can.

In the following video, you can see how self-assured and to the point Obama is in this 2004 interview. This is Obama un-filtered, exhibiting that ray of hope that everyone who voted for change was expecting him to deliver.



Now notice how uncomfortable the president is when discussing these issues while on the campaign trail in 2008. The only bit of genuine honesty that appears to leak through is in the last 40 seconds when he discloses that, as president, he would simply have bigger fish to fry than to worry about silly marijuana laws.



In light of his new nomination of Ms. Leonhart to the DEA, Obama’s current position on federal marijuana laws seems all too similar to that of his predecessor. He is pushing to elect a woman with an abysmal track record for “using justice resources to circumvent state laws,” as she did in the aforementioned California raids in 2009. If any of this seems the least bit unsettling to you, please take a moment to sign the digital petition urging senators to block the appointment of Michele Leonhart to the DEA. At this point, however, the audacity of hope for significant drug law changes in this country seems beyond audacious; it may be delusional. Still sign the petition though. Seriously!

~Wolf