Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg is facing pressure from pot advocates to step down after he called medical marijuana a “joke.”
Nearly 10,000 medical marijuana supporters have signed a petition calling for Rosenberg to be replaced with a more pot-friendly DEA head.
“President Obama should fire Chuck Rosenberg and appoint a new DEA administrator who will respect science, medicine, patients and voters,” reads the petition organized by the Marijuana Majority.
Rosenberg had harsh words about medical marijuana supporters last week during a briefing with reporters.
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not,” Rosenberg said. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine — that’s a joke.”
Marijuana advocates responded by organizing a petition calling for Rosenberg to be fired.
“Medical marijuana is not a ‘joke’ to the millions of seriously ill patients in a growing number of states who use it legally in accordance with doctors’ recommendations,” the petition reads.
“It is not a ‘joke’ to the growing number of prominent medical organizations — American Nurses Association, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians, for example — who know that cannabis has real and proven medical benefits,” it continued.