Leonhart, Michele

Michele Leonhart (1956-) has been acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice whose primary mission is enforcing U.S. laws and regulations regarding controlled substances, since November 2007. In February 2010 she was nominated by President Barack Obama to assume the role on a permanent basis. Leonhart is a career DEA special agent whose previous positions include serving as deputy administrator of the DEA under President George W. Bush from 2004 to 2007. She has been awarded numerous honors including the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service (from President Bill Clinton) in 2000, the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Outstanding Federal Law Enforcement Employee Award in 2005, and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service (from President George W. Bush) in 2005.

[Page 467]Leonhart earned her B.S. in Criminal Justice in 1978 and graduated from the Baltimore Police Academy before joining the Baltimore Police Department. In 1980 she was applied as a special agent for the DEA and worked in that capacity for five years in Minneapolis, where she frequently posed as an undercover agent in drug investigations and coordinated conspiracy investigations. In 1986 she was appointed the special agent recruiter for the DEA Field Division in St. Louis and in 1988 became a group supervisor in the DEA San Diego Field Division.

Leonhart's Enforcement Group in San Diego dealt with many international smuggling cases including the successful investigation of a Bolivia-based cocaine cartel led by Jorge Roca-Suarez. This investigation resulted in the conviction of Roca-Suarez and his codefendants and seizure of over $14 million in assets. In 1993 Leonhart was awarded the DEA Administrator's Award. She continued to rise through the ranks, serving as an OPR (Internal Affairs) supervisor at the Agency Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia (1993), then serving on the DEA's Career Board (1994), and as assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles Field Division (1995). In 1996 she was promoted to the Senior Executive Service and held several positions including special agent in charge of the Los Angeles Field Division, 1998–2003.

Leonhart is known for taking a hard line on drug enforcement, favoring aggressive investigation (including recreational drugs such as ecstasy) and opposing research into the potential benefits of marijuana or its use even under medical supervision. While these attitudes are not surprising for someone working within the DEA nor for a political appointee during the Bush administration, her nomination by President Barack Obama to serve as permanent administrator of the DEA surprised many of the president's supporters who feel that Leonhart's positions are guided not by science but by political ideology.

Because Leonhart is the acting head of a federal agency in charge of enforcing drug laws, her aggressive law-enforcement stance is particularly concerning to people who support supervised medical use of marijuana as well as research into its therapeutic properties. In the United States, some individual states allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but federally marijuana remains classified as an illegal Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Therefore, federal authorities can arrest people for possessing or dispensing marijuana even in states that permit medical marijuana use. In 2009 Attorney Eric Holder, in contrast to Leonhart's long-time stance, announced that federal agents would not “focus” on people using marijuana for medical purposes in states where it was legal; however, some federal raids on marijuana dispensaries have continued.

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