politico | The day after Leonhart’s appearance before the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, when she admitted she didn’t know if the
prostitutes used by DEA agents were underage, Chairman Jason Chaffetz
(R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) issued a joint statement expressing no confidence in Leonhart’s leadership. The next day, Leonhart retired, a move Chaffetz and Cummings deemed “appropriate.” That was April.
In
May, the Senate made history by voting in favor of the first
pro-marijuana measure ever offered in that chamber to allow the Veterans
Administration to recommend medical marijuana to veterans. Then when
June rolled around, it was time for the House to pass its appropriations
bill for Commerce, Justice and Science. That’s when things got
interesting. The DEA got its budget cut by $23 million, had its
marijuana eradication unit’s budget slashed in half and its bulk data
collections program shut down. Ouch.
In short, April was a bad
month for the DEA; May was historically bad; but June was arguably the
DEA’s worst month since Colorado went legal 18 months ago—a turn of
events that was easy to miss with the news crammed with tragic
shootings, Confederate flags, Obamacare, gay marriage, a papal
encyclical and the Greece-Euro drama. July hasn’t been any different,
with the legalization movement only gaining steam in both chambers of
Congress.
The string of setbacks, cuts and handcuffs for the DEA
potentially signals a new era for the once untouchable law enforcement
agency—a sign that the national reconsideration of drug policy might
engulf and fundamentally alter DEA’s mission.
“The DEA is no longer sacrosanct,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) tells Politico.
