Marijuana supporters petition White House to fire DEA chief

Results from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) recently released 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) show that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle accidents and firearms. In 2007, illicit drugs accounted for $193 billion annually.

The report highlights how heroin is an increasingly unsafe and popular drug in the USA and how its use is increasingly linked to prescription drugs.

In Arizona, methamphetamine seizures have increased by 294 percent in the past five years. Maximum deaths in the U.S. take place due to prescription drugs.

“Awareness of the potential dangers of prescription medication use and storage is a critical piece needed to combat this threat”, Jones said. “Prescribers should also make an intentional effort to only prescribe these agents to patients who really need them and in appropriate quantities”.

As progressive marijuana policy sweeps the nation-with 23 states and D.C. legalizing medical marijuana and four states legalizing marijuana outright-not everyone is on board.

“The most significant drug trafficking organizations operating in the United States today are the risky and highly sophisticated Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that continue to be the principal suppliers of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana”, Rosenberg wrote in his statement. It is still illegal under federal law.

Furthermore, organizations like the Brookings Institution, the American Medical Association and the American Civil Liberties Union oppose to DEA categorizing marijuana as “Schedule 1” controlled substance, meaning it has “no now accepted medical use”.

First, it’s important to understand the economic costs of drug abuse in the U.S. According to a 2001 study, the total cost of heroin to the US was $21.9 billion in 1996. Because of the decline in demand for marijuana, drug cartels have begun pushing substantially more unsafe drugs like heroin and cocaine.

“Sadly, this report confirms what we’ve known for a few time: Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities”, said Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the DEA.