DEA: The Next "Revolving Door"

I have been posting entries under the category "War on Drugs Winds Down" for many months, but this entry takes the cake: the ABA Online reports that former Drug Enforcement Administration drug warrior Patrick Moen - who made his career putting marijuana users and sellers in prison, breaking apart families and destroying lives -- has now switched sides and has taken a job in the 'legal marijuana' industry.

Revolving Door

This is the same revolving door that we see in many other sectors of government, where former regulators go to work for big corporations protecting them from government regulation. However, the level of hypocrisy here exceeds just about anything we have ever seen before. The same man who enforced laws that require life imprisonment sentences for some drug dealers is now a drug dealer. Have you no shame, Mr. Moen?

Obama Administration Creates Jobs

Policies of the Obama Administration are responsible for the recent winding down of the drug wars -- substantially reducing prison sentences in federal drug distribution and manufacturing prosecutions, reducing or ending marijuana enforcement in States that have legalized marijuana. So, you could say that DEA Agent Moen's new job is a job that was, in part, created by the Obama administration (he says as much in the ABA article, explaining that part of his job is maintaining compliance with Deputy attorney General James M. Cole's August 13, 2013 Memo, "Guidelines Regarding Marijuana Enforcement."). Are these the jobs of the future?

War on Drugs Winds Down

There will be plenty of jobs for the coming wave of laid-off drug warriors, because the web of laws governing marijuana around the country has become so complicated and contradictory. I always thought that the biggest impediment to drug legalization or decriminalization would be the millions of jobs propped up by the failed drug war - the Drug War Industrial Complex. In that sense, I guess former DEA Agent Moen's decision to switch sides is good news - he has sent a message to his former colleagues that you can give up a failed and unjust crusade without necessarily giving up your career in the 'industry.'

--- Ted