DEA Chief Deflects Pols’ Pot Questions - William Bergstrom
Two Democratic congressmen who support medical marijuana pursued almost identical lines of questioning of the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday — and ran into identical stone walls.
Reps. Jared Polis and Steve Cohen grilled Michele Leonhart about the dangers of marijuana relative to other illegal drugs, such as heroin and methamphetamine, during a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing. The DEA administrator only frustrated their efforts.
“Is crack worse for a person than marijuana?” Polis asked.
“I believe all illegal drugs are bad,” Leonhart replied.
“Is methamphetamine worse for somebody’s health than marijuana?”
“I don’t think any illegal drug is good.”
“Is heroin worse for someone’s health than marijuana?”
“Again, all drugs…”
“It’s either ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘I don’t know.’”