Former DEA chiefs want feds to block state pot laws
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CHICAGO (AP) - Eight former U.S. drug chiefs warned the federal government Tuesday that time is running out to nullify Colorado and Washington's new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use, and a United Nations agency also urged challenges to the measures it says violate international treaties.
The former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs criticized Barack Obama's administration for moving too slowly to file a lawsuit that would force the states to rescind the legislation. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
"My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing," former DEA administrator Peter Bensinger told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "If they don't act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months."
Bensinger, who lives in the Chicago area, said if the federal government doesn't immediately sue the states it'll risk creating "a domino effect" in which other states legalize marijuana too.
The statement from the DEA chiefs came the same day the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, made its appeal in an annual drug report, calling on federal officials to act to "ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory."
But Brian Vicente, co-author of the Colorado pot legalization law, said a handful of North American countries have expressed support for legalization.
"You have two states revolting and they're saying it doesn't work in their state and their community and it sends a strong message globally," he said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a meeting of state attorneys general last week that he is still reviewing the laws but that his review is winding down. Asked Monday for a comment on the criticism from the former DEA administrators, Holder spokeswoman Allison Price would only say, "The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing those initiatives."
The department's review has been under way since shortly after last fall's elections. It could sue to block the states from issuing licenses to marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, on the grounds that doing so conflicts with federal drug law. Alternatively, Holder could decide not to mount a court challenge.
The ex-DEA heads are issuing the statements through the Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs. One of its spokesmen is based in Chicago.
The former DEA administrators are Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen. They served for both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Holder is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. The former DEA chiefs want senators to question Holder on the legalization issue.
Advocates of legalization have welcomed Colorado and Washington's new laws, arguing that criminalizing drugs creates serious though unintended social problems. The ex-DEA heads say they disagree with that view.
After votes last fall, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana's recreational use - putting federal authorities in a quandary over how, or whether, to respond.
Washington state officials responsible for creating a regulated marijuana system have said they are moving forward with a timetable of issuing producer licenses by August.
Bensinger - who served as DEA administrator under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan - said the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn't in doubt.
"This is a no-brainer," he said. "It is outrageous that a lawsuit hasn't been filed in federal court yet."
Advocates of less stringent drug laws criticized the ex-DEA heads later Tuesday.
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said the eight are destined to share the legacy of agents who enforced alcohol prohibition before that policy was deemed a failure and reversed in 1933.
"The former DEA chiefs' statement can best be seen as a self-interested plea to validate the costly and failed policies they championed but that Americans are now rejecting at the ballot box," Nadelmann said.
The former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs criticized Barack Obama's administration for moving too slowly to file a lawsuit that would force the states to rescind the legislation. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
"My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing," former DEA administrator Peter Bensinger told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "If they don't act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months."
Bensinger, who lives in the Chicago area, said if the federal government doesn't immediately sue the states it'll risk creating "a domino effect" in which other states legalize marijuana too.
The statement from the DEA chiefs came the same day the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, made its appeal in an annual drug report, calling on federal officials to act to "ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory."
But Brian Vicente, co-author of the Colorado pot legalization law, said a handful of North American countries have expressed support for legalization.
"You have two states revolting and they're saying it doesn't work in their state and their community and it sends a strong message globally," he said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a meeting of state attorneys general last week that he is still reviewing the laws but that his review is winding down. Asked Monday for a comment on the criticism from the former DEA administrators, Holder spokeswoman Allison Price would only say, "The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing those initiatives."
The department's review has been under way since shortly after last fall's elections. It could sue to block the states from issuing licenses to marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, on the grounds that doing so conflicts with federal drug law. Alternatively, Holder could decide not to mount a court challenge.
The ex-DEA heads are issuing the statements through the Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs. One of its spokesmen is based in Chicago.
The former DEA administrators are Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen. They served for both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Holder is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. The former DEA chiefs want senators to question Holder on the legalization issue.
Advocates of legalization have welcomed Colorado and Washington's new laws, arguing that criminalizing drugs creates serious though unintended social problems. The ex-DEA heads say they disagree with that view.
After votes last fall, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana's recreational use - putting federal authorities in a quandary over how, or whether, to respond.
Washington state officials responsible for creating a regulated marijuana system have said they are moving forward with a timetable of issuing producer licenses by August.
Bensinger - who served as DEA administrator under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan - said the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn't in doubt.
"This is a no-brainer," he said. "It is outrageous that a lawsuit hasn't been filed in federal court yet."
Advocates of less stringent drug laws criticized the ex-DEA heads later Tuesday.
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said the eight are destined to share the legacy of agents who enforced alcohol prohibition before that policy was deemed a failure and reversed in 1933.
"The former DEA chiefs' statement can best be seen as a self-interested plea to validate the costly and failed policies they championed but that Americans are now rejecting at the ballot box," Nadelmann said.
Well why would an ex CEO from DupPont be against this pot thing gee who would have guessed..
Oh and by the way he was in charge of DEA when ollie north was smuggling coke from central America..
What does that tell you..???
He is not getting his cut...
Screw the white old ass men. Obama did the right thing. The Feds need to back off and let the states make there laws. Pot should be legal to be honest. Obama made the right choice to let the states decide. I've already email Obama about Kratom also . For you the don't know the DEA is controlled by big Pharmaceutical Companies and doctors. Kratom is getting people off of Pharmaceutical drugs and street drugs.
People are doing it. People will keep doing it. And people want it to be decriminalized.
Why do these people want to continue to bog down the police departments and the courts with this minutia.
@Rob C 503Â Money is their problem, the DEA may lose funding fighting a self fulfilling, nonsensical drug war. Â Not to mention they have yet to find a way to tax cannabis, you can grow it almost anywhere in the world. Â Anything the federal government hasn't found a method for taxing will claim should be illegal or heavily restricted, then insert their anecdotal evidence and propaganda.Â
Not to mention a number of other industries that through their irrational fear or pure greed have seen hemp as a threat.
I have the same opinion as most. Alcohol is a much more dangerous drug than pot could ever even come close to being. I'm pretty sure that everyone could agree with this, but many won't openly agree. Probably because they enjoy drinking a beer or glass of wine after work. My question for those people is, why is alcohol OK? What is your reasoning behind that? You have to be able to see how much more harmful alcohol is than marijuana. Why is there not a "war" to make alcohol illegal other than the fact that it didn't work the first time? I love that they call pot a gateway drug, yet the majority of us surely tried cigarettes or alcohol before pot.
People are going to smoke pot if they want. It's readily available everywhere! Why not let the states make money off of it and help their economy instead of the Feds fighting it and costing us all more money and hurting us even more?Â
I foresee civil war coming. Should be entertaining to watch from the sidelines.
@cantcurestupid If you choose not to decide you still have make a choice...
I think there was a song that said that....
Here's a question. There a quite a few people that said they would defy any new federal gun regulations imposed by the Obama administration, based on the rights of each state to set their own laws. There were even a number of law enforcement officials all over the country that made such public claims. Will these same people also back WA & CO in their right to legalize marijuana? Seems like the attack is the same, just curious if the reasoning will hold true when it's drugs instead of guns.
@PhillyBuster Dang there you go thinking again..
Good point...
Wait... they want to go after the Marijuana industry all together, but they can't stop people from illegally crossing our borders then paying for their anchor babies? I say pick your battles sir!Oh wait, they failed at that too.
Liberal view:Â The so-called "war on drugs" has been an absolute failure, and while we understand that legalization of highly addictive narcotics would be no great solution, one thing we CAN safely do is legalize a substance less harmful than alcohol, one that has no physically addictive properties whatsoever, and one that has actually been proven to help many people.
Conservative view: Pot for hippies. Pot bad. Make law no pot. Oogh.@brautigan Hate to tell you but I am a conservative. I own guns, smoke pot and I vote.
@scared_citizen @brautigan Sorry for the generalization )
the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn't in doubt."
 It's time the states stood up to the federal government.
@axpman  Absolutely and in multiple areas.
The feds don't enforce federal laws anymore! Everything and anything goes these days! This is the new US reality!
LoL where are the conservatives talking about state's rights? oh yeah they only care if its re-instating jim crow laws
Commerce Clause, Mr. Fed? Standard overreaching lifer in the bureaucracy.
The heck with the Tenth Amendment and the will of the PEOPLE! I need my JOB!!
"Eight former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use."
Might put em out of work!
Government have no authority to control people's wish. People have their voice whatever they want.Â
Wait. He wants the DOJ which, sues states that try to enforce federal laws that the feds won't; won't enforce existing gun laws but supplies guns to Mexican cartels and then plead "executive privilege" when people want answers; and, won't investigate voter fraud or intimidation; to now enforce laws contrary to state sovereignty and NOT enumerated in the constitution. Meanwhile, this administration is trying hard to abrogate rights that ARE enumerated in the constitution. This guy would be perfect as a commentator at MSNBC.
@Conspirator He is a republican what did you expect...
Obama is a hop head himself, he won't change the laws, he likes them.
@dkgiovenco which is why he instructs the DEA to raid medicinal pot farmers - good point. /sarcasm
@dkgiovencoÂ
And he's a secret communist time traveling kenyan muslim.
KATU - Please update the headline.  A more accurate one would be "Ex-politician who built his company around lobbying for & profiting from marijuana prohibition is throwing a hissy fit that the public wants is legal" Â
@auditor Good point Ex CEO of DuPont....
Well of course these bottom feeding morals police will be against any changes in federal drug laws; that would mean the harm and terror they have inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of people over pot laws; arrest and  incarceration for exceedingly vicious sentencing laws, the terrors of normal people suddenly in federal prisons wondering when bubba was going to stop by, ruined lives over, what? a joint  - all of this would have been for naught; these vice cops would have spend their lives doing what society now says is OK, pot use:  these people will NEVER admit they were not in the absolute right (listen closely and you will hear some bible thumping as well). Besides, their scum sucking buddies would be out of jobs. They are (part of) the problem, NOT part of the solution. They are still pissed over prohibition being repealed.Â
I actually miss the pot heads. All they did was come over and eat all my cookies, leave me one can of soda left and passed out watching cartoons. To think that used to irritate me. Now when i try and find a certain family member they're so messed up on meth i beg them to just be a stoner. At least i know they're safe and healthy. Small concetion for the totality of one's own potential, but i'd take it. And so would any of you.
@JohnPDX Fascinating perspective.
Mine is that when you hang out with potheads, they always show up late to band practice. Other than that they're a lot easier to hang out with than fratboys and drunk uncles.
Turf war, they want to keep status quo, about their jobs, not the real facts surrounding hemp,, oh and the income attorneys get, the system reeks...
I smoked pot 20 years ago, gave it up because it wasn't for me.  Having said that, there is no way the government is going to be able to prohibit this from going on.  Period.  I'm not saying "all is lost, abandon ship" but you have to look at what the societal benefits and detriments are.  And, there are many, many issues that have far more societal impact than a guy smoking a joint.  I can't understand why the government is so unable to prioritize their focus....this is pretty much a no brainer.  Take the money out of it, make it unprofitable for the Mexican guys growing it in national forests and smuggling it in.  Take the possession and use enforcement off the plate of local LEO's...there are other things I'd much rather they do.  Leave the states rights alone, thank you....
This comment has been deleted
@Tove'Â Friendly advice - all caps is considered shouting and just plain rude in most forums. Â I'd edit that one....
It's all simple really... Silence equals agreement, that's why the government hasn't reacted. This is only one voice...
...and I wish some of those budget cuts would have been the "war on drugs programs". It's a failure. Wanna cut some corners?? Start where we pour money into sinkholes. Morons..
@PDXBEAR Right? it only makes sense because the "war" is so ineffective at is stated objective to reduce drug use; however, the real reason that it was implemented is as a jobs program and it is working to create more police jobs, corrections jobs, drug counseling jobs, prison construction jobs....etc. Making common things that people enjoy illegal is big business.
@Icarus @PDXBEAR Well, yeah. I'm gay tell me about it. LOLÂ
Seriously, though: someone find out who's paying this guy.
He's a lobbyist for somebody...most likely the private prison industry...but could be police unions, big pharma, the neo-fascists...somebody is paying him. Washington needs to get of its arse and make that program work pronto but I kinda think that the state has placed the responsibility in the hands of boneheads just so that it fails. Doesn't matter anyway; pot is readily available under prohibition and there are lots of profits for people willing to take the risk.
@Icarus Surprisingly easy to dig up the answer... Â
MR. PETER B. BENSINGERÂ is President and Chief Executive Officer of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates (BDA), a privately owned professional services company that provides a wide range of consultation, training and employee assistance program services promoting a Drug-Free Workplace and employee health and safety as well as intervention and treatment for compulsive gambling. BDA also provides comprehensive risk management surveillance programs for prescription drugs.
The Prescription Drug Research Center (PDRC) is a subsidiary of BDA that provides consultation, monitoring the nonmedical use of specific prescribed controlled substances and efforts to reduce the nonmedical use of these medicines. BDA strives to provide quality services that exceed our customersâ expectations everyday.Â
%s
@auditor Nicely done! A DuPont, even.Â
@auditor @Playanekes I wonder if they own or have any stakes in drug testing companies?
@Playanekes @auditor Indeed they are all in on it.  Robert DuPont is the only other listed principal at their site. Â
For more than 30 years, ROBERT L. DUPONT, M.D. has been a leader in drug abuse prevention and treatment. Among his many contributions he was the first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1973-1978) and was the second White House Drug Chief (1973-1978). Following this government career, in 1978 Dr. DuPont became the founding president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. (www.ibhinc.org), and in 1982, with his longtime colleague, Peter Bensinger, he founded Bensinger, DuPont & Associates.
Dr. DuPont has written for publication more than two hundred ninety professional articles and eighteen books and monographs on a variety of health-related subjects. His books include Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs: A Guide for the Family, A Bridge to Recovery: An Introduction to Twelve-Step Programs (written with John P. McGovern, M.D.) and The Selfish Brain: Learning from Addiction. In 2005 Hazelden, the nation's leading publisher of books on addiction and recovery, published three books on drug testing by Dr. DuPont: Drug Testing in Treatment Settings, Drug Testing in Schools, and Drug Testing in Correctional Settings.
An old stick in the mud... When that "control the world" generation dies we will all be better off !
@dougrpdx And yet here they are...telling you where you can smoke, sit, how much soda you can buy....yes these guys are carrying dinosaur age ideals but the nanny state never left.
these guys probably would have been upset they abolished slavery back in the day.
old farts stuck in time.. what ya gonna do.
Wonder which BigPharm / BigAg / BigLE group he gets paid by...
The DEA should probably give up on trying to stop pot legalization - it's a losing battle. But society will get exactly what it deserves by legalizing it - an even more impaired society unwilling to live in the real world and face real world problems. Yep, no solutions will be coming out of that segment of society.
@ormom You're clueless. The pot smokers I know rent their second house to a couple of system administrators...it has a recording studio in the basement...and own 40 acres of land in southern Washington where they spend their weekends kicked back in lawnchairs watching the deer or looking at the stars.
We call it the American dream. They're happily-married, both gainfully employed (non-union), and they're living it.Â
An HP team leader in Corvallis told me one time that there's no way they'll drug test employees or they'd lose half of their engineers. Professionals who use it just know enough to stay out of trouble and to keep it to themselves.
@Playanekes @ormom Most of the engineers I've worked with smoke pot, my company tests but excludes pot from it's drug testing.
The fact is that alcohol is by far and away the leading cause of lost productivity and absence in the work place, period.
@ormom Have you ever smoked pot? Because, umm, you sound pretty silly.
sorry brautigan, wrong person...
@ormom Your next door neighbor smokes pot...Branson, the multi-millionaire of Virgin smokes pot...many of the very successful people you see on your idiot tube, smoke pot. Olympic athletes smoke pot. Get some knowledge, stop buying into the Reefer Madness mentality, do some research and stop bad mouthing things you obviously either A. know nothing about or B. can't handle yourself. It's not for everybody, just like many things aren;t for everybody, but it doesn;t make you stoopid or lazy, unless you already were stoopid or lazy.
@Oaktree777
If you have to get high or have a few drinks to 'relax' you already have a problem with the reality of your life.
@ormom and you are clearly uninformed and unwilling to engage in a rational debate as evidenced by your side-stepping of the facts in front of you. bye now!
@Oaktree777
Whoa, you seem a little defensive there.
@ormom upset and defensive - examples, please. Or is this another one of your straw man fantasy attacks with no basis in reality? And pot smokers have a distorted view of reality? Classic! You should take this on the road...and leave it there.
@ormomHuh - where exactly did I say I did, or had to? I see you've conveniently passed over all the very successful people who partake of pot, thereby destroying your argument, so you resort to a straw man attack on me personally without any evidence that I do. Interesting. Disturbing, but interesting. I mountain bike and race mountain bikes to 'relax' - do I have a problem with the reality of my life, or does the person who judges what other people's personal choices to recreate have a problem with the reality of THEIR life?
@darren vandervort
because they get so upset and defensive?
@ormom Why do you have to assume one "has to" do these things.  Some people enjoy these things and "like to" do them.  I don't "have to" ski, but I like to.