Anti-Marijuana DEA Chief to Resign

The head of the Drug Enforcement Agency will resign next month, prompting cheers from cannabis entrepreneurs frustrated with her vocal opposition to marijuana legalization and the industry in general.

Michele Leonhart, the chief administrator of the DEA since 2010, had fallen out of favor with President Barack Obama’s administration long ago, in part for “appearing to resist federal rules relaxing enforcement on marijuana as states have moved to legalize the drug for medicinal and recreational use,” CNN reported.

Her resignation, effective in mid-May, could open the door for a more cannabis-friendly DEA chief.

Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, said her tenure was “shameful.”

“From interfering with voter-approved state marijuana laws to mismanaging broader agency scandals, it’s long been time for her to go,” Angell said, adding that the situation provides Obama with an “opportunity” to pick a new DEA head who realizes that the war on marijuana is essentially over.

Leonhart has been under fire recently due to sex party scandals in Colombia involving DEA agents and prostitutes paid for by cartels.

She began as head of the DEA in 2007, when then-President George W. Bush named her as acting director, and she was later asked to stay on by Obama.