?! Bush Leftover DEA Nominee Leonhart ?!

(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

First we had the leftover Bush era reefer madness drug policy :

Holder’s DOJ Setting Record Marijuana Busts

https://www.docudharma.com/diar…

FBI stats say 858,408 people were arrested for marijuana in 2009, under US Atty General Holder’s DOJ, the 2nd highest total ever, and it was an increase of + 1.3% from under the Bush administration’s last year in office, 2008. (the record was 872,721 in 2007)

per this FBI sourced chart here, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius200… 251,740 Californians were arrested last year for drug offenses, if 52% of them were for marijuana, that would be 130,940 citizens of California busted for pot, the equivalent of 2 large sport stadiums filled with people, or about the population of the cities of Elk Grove or Thousand Oaks. If 88% of those people were charged with possession only, that’s still about

– 115, 196 Californians getting arrested in 2009 just for possessing marijuana

Then we had CA vs. the Feds and DiFi & Baca :

Prop 19: AG Holder Issues Shocking Threat Against State’s Rights To Legalize MJ

https://www.docudharma.com/diar…

If Proposition 19, the Decriminalize and Tax initiative had passed, Attorney General Eric Holder said he’d keep prosecuting them anyway, per a letter written to ex DEA (and now private Homeland Security contractors) agents who petitioned him to keep prosecuting legal marijuana users and growers.

Opposition to Prop 19 was funded by Indian Casino gambling such as the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the beer and wine industry, including both large ones like EJ Gallo and Anheiser Busch and smaller artisan breweries in the state of CA, Big Oil companies like Chevron, Big Tobacco such as Phillip Morris, and even most of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers of mood altering drugs like Pfizer, Glaxosmithkline, Eli Lilly, and even Perdu Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin. CALBUSPAC, one of the multi donor PACs against prop 19, lists many of them thru one of the pharma pac subdonors. http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…

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Now we have the leftover Bush Era DEA Appointee looking for an Obama administration upgrade. An appointee already so lousy, Republican President George W Bush first tried foisting her off on the taxpayer in 2003. Then in April 2008, the Bush White House said it wanted to promote her to replace Karen P Tandy, who had resigned in 2007. The Senate was not enthused. Again. Now, 7 years later, like fungus, “Democratic” President Barack Obama is proposing Dubya’s leftover appointee, Michele Leonhart, be promoted from Deputy Administrator to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Michele Leonhart, under Bush’s era, was the Special Agent in Charge for the DEA in Los Angeles, and the ranking agent in charge for many, many Bush era raids on legitimate medical marijuana, which has been legal now in CA for 14 years. Then she started doing them for the Obama administration. And she must be very good at it. The Senate is supposed to have hearings on this Wednesday (tomorrow). Are you excited yet ? Yes We Can Waste Money We Don’t Have On Going After Stoners Because We Have Nothing Else to Do !

This is a Bush era appointee, Michelle Leonhart, who makes a living raiding from CA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. Now President Obama wants to promote her to head his DEA. Attention younger voters who are going to be watching the 2012 nominees – is this the sort of thing that appeals to you as a constituent ?

crawfordondrugs.com Leonhart Memo (from the pdf link)

During the Bush years, the DEA raided more than a hundred California dispensaries, sometimes merely seizing their medicine and cash, sometimes prosecuting their operators and sending them to federal prison. The DEA also went after a medical marijuana organization in Washington State that supplied starter plants for its members, used a federal grand jury in Oregon to obtain patient records, and threatened New Mexico officials planning to implement that state’s medical marijuana distribution program.

On January 22nd 2009, President Obama’s second full day in office, the DEA, under Acting Administrator Leonhart, raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California. They seized cash and medical marijuana but made no arrests. Five raids followed in L.A. on February 5th and then one in Fort Bragg on February 11th. 1 At a February 26th press conference, Leonhart stood beside Attorney General Eric Holder who, when asked if continued DEA raids represented the Administration’s medical marijuana policy going forward, replied:

“What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement…What he said during the campaign is now American policy. 2”

I am still trying to figure out just which president the Attorney General was referring to in that answer. Because I can’t tell. Candidate President said he wasn’t going to circumvent state laws on this issue because he wanted “folks” to be investigating violent crimes and terrorism. Actual President, post election of 2008, immediately saw a ready source of California cash and decided to let Leonhart and Holder have at it. The Federal government has also made it clear during this fall’s Prop 19 campaign, that if all the local legal DA jurisdictions and various county sherif’s departments didn’t support the Federal government’s wishes to keep recreational marijuana illegal, they could kiss a large amount of Federal law enforcement funding from Homeland Security good bye.

Michele Leonhart is vehemently against any sort of legalized marijuana whatsoever, whether or not a state has legalized it for medical use. Some people may not mind the fact that medical marijuana is legal, as it can go to great lengths to help improve a person’s health, as well as their quality of life. Users of medical marijuana may even decide to plant and grow their own cannabis seeds in their garden so they have access to the substance as soon as it is ready. However, most people still decide to take marijuana in the normal way. If you did want to try something different, then i49.net has more information about how to grow your own seeds and they can also provide you with a starting point. Even though there are people who agree with the use of medical marijuana, not everyone agrees with it being legal for recreational use.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/…

The Drug Policy Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Marijuana Policy Project, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and Students for Sensible Drug Policy are among the groups calling on the President Obama to withdraw his nomination.

Of concern to these groups, under Leonhart’s administration, the DEA has raided a number of legal medical marijuana growers and dispensaries, ones that may provide the public with products like the ones listed here: https://peakcitycbd.com/products/cbd-oils/. 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.

She’s also one of those flat earth types who can’t tell the difference between an addictive narcotic and a non narcotic herb like CBD Cannabis, which many partake solely for medical purposes:

The coalition of marijuana advocacy groups also believe Leonhart should not be nominated because she has disrupted marijuana research in the past. In 2009, she refused to issue a license to the University of Massachusetts to cultivate marijuana for a FDA-approved study.

And who doesn’t want to know the difference.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/…

As Interim DEA director, Ms. Leonhart has overseen dozens of federal raids on medical marijuana providers, producers, and laboratory facilities that engage in the testing of cannabis potency and quality. These actions took place in states that have enacted laws allowing for the production and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, and they are inconsistent with an October 19, 2009 Department of Justice memo recommending federal officials no longer “focus … resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

In particular, Ms. Leonhart has neglected to reply to an eight-year-old petition that calls for administrative hearings regarding the rescheduling marijuana for medical use. Such hearings were called for in 2009 by the American Medical Association, which resolved “that marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines.” If you use marijuana as a medicine or different compounds of the plant such as CBD and you’re wanting to inform yourself some more on the research of marijuana and it’s properties, you can peruse questions such as how long does cbd stay in your system.

The creepiest part about Michele Leonhart is that she has described the US funded and enhanced – Mexican Drug Cartels border war, which has now resulted in over 31,000 violent deaths in Mexico, as a sign of the “success” of the DEA’s anti drug tactics, back in April 2009.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfe…

“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” Leonhart said. The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”

In 2008, Mexican officials attributed 6,290 murders to drug-related violence, more than double the number in 2007. Several hundred of the victims were government officials and many of their bodies were mutilated and placed where they would be found, to warn others against opposing cartel operations.

Anthony Placido, (DEA assistant administrator and chief of intelligence ) and others said they hope and expect the outcome in Mexico will be similar to that in Colombia, where for years the cartels assassinated judges and other officials, occupied huge swaths of territory and terrorized the population, until the Colombian government demonstrated the will and the wherewithal to fight back effectively. Cartel-related activity in Colombia has been reduced from a national security threat to a more manageable law enforcement problem, Placido said.

Leonard’s been involved in the Juarez House of Death coverup.

Leonard defended a super snitch, Andrew Chambers, who kept pejurying himself as he collected over $2 million in payments, even after many prosecutors and Courts wouldn’t take his testimony anymore .

Leonard also liked to fly a private jet to Columbia, spending $123,000 for whatever it was she was doing there.

The Drug Policy Alliance has more in this pdf download with links:

http://crawfordondrugs.com/wp-…

By now you’re thinking, gee, this Bush leftover appointee Leonard really sounds like a big loser for the Hope and Change administration, unless they’ve been inhaling too much bipartisanshipthingee.

Oh, it gets better.

She’s probably involved, at least around the edges, as a lifelong DEA career officer, in a Ponzi scheme that ripped off other DEA agents of their investments. Because the rip off guy was the “DEA retirement specialist.” “If he was being used by and had a relationship with your employer for so many years, and was the official retirement guy, you assumed vetting had taken place,” said one investor who lost everything. Federal and state agencies paid him to put on retirement seminars for their employees. He paid old investors off the new ones, promised 8 and 10% returns, and took 40 people to the Superbowl every year.

Jacksonville, Florida

http://jacksonville.com/news/m…

“He told me he’d done undercover work. That’s why he had all of those tattoos,” Lamm said.

Former government officials who were on McLeod’s payroll included a retired assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Tampa, a former ICE administrator in Jacksonville, a former DEA agent from South Florida and an ex-Secret Service official.

A government website shows that since 2005, federal agencies paid McLeod nearly $203,000 to put on seminars. The Department of Homeland Security, IRS and Department of Veterans Affairs were among agencies that awarded McLeod contracts.

It’s a whole ‘nother culture. The man claimed to have descended from Vidalia Onion farming money.

Nassau County Sheriff said he taught DEA asset forfeiture training classes….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against the estate of Kenneth Wayne McLeod, who had recently taken his own life as authorities closed in on what they say was a long-running ponzi scheme that ensnared 260 investors, many of them law enforcement officers, and stole at least $34 million.

“McLeod victimized law enforcement agents and other government employees who dedicated their lives to the service of this country,” said Eric I. Bustillo, head of the SEC Miami regional office.

Leonhart is a career DEA official, meaning that it will be difficult for her to avoid becoming entangled in the affair, which the SEC began in the 1980s. Crawford reported Thursday at CrawfordOnDrugs.com that a Justice Department official had deemed her a “dead woman walking.” She has been acting director since 2007. A DoJ spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call.

I bet Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, he of the pending Pentagon FY 2011 Defense Budget funds diverted towards pot eradication in his own state, is really looking forward to this. It’s going to be like old times. Pay ’em to go after the beer & whiskey competitors, and then rip ’em off of their retirement nest eggs.

Press release from the SEC, June 25 2010

http://sec.gov/news/press/2010…

The SEC charged the estate of the recently deceased Kenneth Wayne McLeod, his benefits consulting firm, Federal Employee Benefits Group, Inc. (FEBG), and his registered investment adviser, F&S Asset Management Group, Inc. with fraudulently soliciting government employees to invest in a government bond fund that didn’t exist.

According to the SEC’s complaint, McLeod lured many of his investors through retirement benefits seminars he gave at government agencies nationwide. He raised at least $34 million since 1988 from an estimated 260 investors around the country. The security of the government bonds was a key element of McLeod’s deception but he never purchased any bonds. Instead, he used the investors’ retirement savings to conduct a Ponzi scheme, to pay himself, and to pay for lavish entertainment, including annual trips to the Super Bowl for himself and 40 friends.

The first rule of Chicago neolibrul appointee club is that there are no new appointees. It must be why we keep having all these leftovers.