Yet again Barack Obama squanders an easy chance to accomplish desperately needed drug policy reform. His opportunity to replace ousted and disgraced DEA chief Michele Leonhart gave a chance for a fresh look at failed drug policies.

Instead, Obama disappoints yet again by choosing Chuck Rosenberg, an FBI agent and former US attorney, to stay the drug war course.

The continuity of the American drug war was clear in the words of prohibitionist prosecutor and now US Attorney General Loretta Lynch as she introduced the next DEA head. Seeming to miss the irony altogether of the recent tales of Colombian cartel sponsored sex parties for DEA agents, Lynch said. “I can think of no better individual to lead this storied agency.” Those are some stories, alright.

But far worse than DEA agent debauchery has been the agency’s self-serving cling to the harshest of drug policies for four long decades, with horrid consequences for the country.

With his background, there is little likelihood that Chuck Rosenberg will vary from the the agency’s rejection of science and embrace of harsh drug policies.  Sadly, the DEA administrator is one of the public officials who could reschedule or deschedule cannabis, a huge public need. No FBI agent or US attorney is going to challenge the draconian, cruel and idiotic Schedule I status where cannabis still languishes, legally harming Americans daily.

The sun is setting on the Obama presidency. With his drug-war-as-usual choices for Attorney General and now DEA administrator he again betrays those who once chanted, “yes we can.” Instead he gives us, again,  “just  say no.”

Don Fitch

Interest in cannabis liberation extends back to the 1960s for Don Fitch. Most of his career has been in high tech and preventive health care, endeavors he continues with Well-Being Skills, focused now on ebook publishing. Don has always followed and contributed to efforts for ending marijuana prohibition. An Oregonian whose vision is endangered by glaucoma, Don has benefited from his state’s 1998 medical cannabis law, and his eyesight is fully preserved. Don has been writing about cannabis and well-being since 2008 in his blog, www.YourBrainOnBliss.com. This site explores the bountiful health benefits stemming from the discovery of the endocannabinoid system and increasingly legal medical cannabis. The impact of these discoveries, and the use of marijuana in prevention and treatment, may be as important to health care as were the microelectronic discoveries Don wrote about in the early ’80s were to our on-going technological revolution. His major goal, still frustrated after decades, is to see cannabis down-scheduled from Schedule I at the federal level. For fun, Don flies paragliders and travels.