DEA Head Michele Leonhart to Step Down Next Month

Michele Leonhart, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will step down next month, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday. The agency has been entangled in scandal, and Leonhart has differed with President Obama on drug policy, The New York Times reports.

Legislators had criticized Leonhart over her handling of reports that DEA agents in Colombia participated in sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels. Leonhart opposed moves by states including Colorado and Washington to legalize recreational marijuana. She has resisted efforts to reduce penalties for the use and distribution of marijuana.

President Obama has said states that have legalized marijuana should be allowed to implement those measures. In 2013, Holder announced a Justice Department plan to change how some non-violent drug offenders are prosecuted. Under the plan, nonviolent drug offenders who are not tied to large-scale drug organizations or gangs will not face mandatory minimum sentences.

Some liberal Democrats are calling on Obama to name a successor to Leonhart who will support a change in marijuana policy. Conservative legislators oppose such a move, the article notes.

Leonhart was nominated to lead the DEA in 2010, after she had been the acting administrator for three years. During a speech to law enforcement officials last year, Leonhart reportedly criticized Obama for saying in a New Yorker interview that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol.