Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin lit into DEA acting director Michele Leonhart, but not about marijuana reform.

Reports before the confirmation hearing of acting Drug Enforcement Agency director Michele Leonhart had asked people to contact their legislators and oppose this confirmation. Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl and his pressure on Leonhart made the news. Unfortunately, the Senator lit into Leonhart about drugs, but not about marijuana reform.

The article in The Daily Caller entitled Michele Leonhart one step closer to officially heading up the DEA recapped the actions of Leonhart to prohibit nursing home employees from dispensing prescription pain medication.

Under light pressure from committee Democrats, Leonhart also restated her promise to reform prescription drug laws that have made it nearly impossible for nursing homes to administer pain medications to their residents.

Senator Herb Kohl (Wisconsin)

Democratic Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin calmly lit into Leonhart.

“It appears the DEA is putting paperwork before pain relief,” Kohl added.

The regulations in question prohibit nursing home nurses from administering pain medications to their residents, even those with a doctor’s prescriptions.

Prohibition and social costs, sounds familiar. Personally, I would have like to read something about Wisconsin legislators who sit on the Judiciary Committee question Leonhart about marijuana reform in a positive light. No such luck I guess, as the grandstanding was left best to the prohibitionists and propaganda parade known shamefully “politics as usual”.

Perhaps due to the failure of Prop 19 in California (and despite the passage of medical marijuana in Arizona), Kohl, along with Democratic Senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Al Franken of Minnesota, made no mention of medical marijuana. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, however, made it his prime focus.

Senator Jeff Sessions (Alabama)

“I’m a big fan of the DEA,” said Sessions, before asking Leonhart point blank if she would fight medical marijuana legalization.

“I have seen what marijuana use has done to young people, I have seen the abuse, I have seen what it’s done to families. It’s bad,” Leonhart said. “If confirmed as administrator, we would continue to enforce the federal drug laws.”

“These legalization efforts sound good to people,” Sessions quipped. “They say, ‘We could just end the problem of drugs if we could just make it legal.’ But any country that’s tried that, Alaska and other places have tried it, have failed. It does not work,” Sessions said.

Michele Leonhart

“We need people who are willing to say that. Are you willing to say that?” Sessions asked Leonhart.

“Yes, I’ve said that, senator. You’re absolutely correct [about] the social costs from drug abuse, especially from marijuana,” Leonhart said. “Legalizers say it will help the Mexican cartel situation; it won’t. It will allow states to balance budgets; it won’t. No one is looking [at] the social costs of legalizing drugs.”