By Bill Piper Huffington Post Bill Piper is the director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. The resignation of the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Michele Leonhart, comes as no surprise to those of us working to reform the agency. The DEA is a bloated, wasteful, scandal-ridden bureaucracy charged with the…
Charles Lutz is a retired DEA Senior Executive. This column was written for ticklethewire.com By Charles Lutz Things in Washington are seldom what they seem. The media has portrayed the forced retirement of DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart as the result of agents in Colombia holding parties with prostitutes paid for by Drug Cartels, and the…
By The Daily Iowan Editorial Board The DEA chief, Michele Leonhart, is stepping down amid heated congressional hearings into her agency’s scandals involving sex parties and compromised information leaked to Colombian drug lords. An internal report documented that prostitutes, sex parties, and undercover apartments were paid for by government money from 2001 to 2005 in…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The resignation of DEA Director Michele Leonhart is a big victory for proponents of medical and even recreational marijuana. Leonhart was steadfastly – some say stubbornly – opposed to pot use and even ignored President Obama’s assertion that federal agencies should respect the marijuana laws of each state. “The real reason we’re…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com DEA Director Michele Leonhart, who has come under sharp criticism over agents’ misconduct, has announced her retirement. Attorney General Eric Holder said Leonhart, who served as the agency’s top administrator since 2010, told him of her plans Tuesday, The USA Today reports. She was the first women to serve as director….
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA is under examination for its handling of informant payments. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General probe comes as the DEA spends more money on informants. The DEA spent $33 million last year on informants but has done a poor job in the past tracking the money, wrote The Pittsburgh…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers leveled harsh claims against DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart on Wednesday, saying they had no confidence in her ability to lead the agency. The sharp words come a day after lawmakers learned that DEA agents received lax punishment for attending “sex parties” in Columbia, the Huffington…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The head of the DEA has come under fire over lax punishments for DEA agents accused of participating in “sex parties” with prostitutes in Columbia, The Huffington Post reports. In fact, some of the accused agents received promotions. No one was fired. Allegations of a sex party emerged last month following…
