Now the DEA says heroin is ‘clearly more dangerous’ than marijuana

Chuck Rosenberg, the new Drug Enforcement Administration chief taking over for Michele Leonhart, admitted Wednesday that heroin is clearly more risky than marijuana. This clarifies a statement he made last week, when he told reporters that marijuana was “probably not” as risky as heroin, adding “I’m not an expert”.

Indeed. Mr. Rosenberg, take note – the longer your department takes to refuse to state or acknowledge the obvious, the more danger and harm your inaction brings not only to heroin addicts struggling to get clean, but medical marijuana patients who simply want access to a drug that may be able to help them better manage their quality of life.

It’s official: the U.S. government’s top drug cop has acknowledged that marijuana is less risky than heroin. The DEA believes Schedule I drugs are “the most risky drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence”.

The comments were praised as a step forward by some drug policy reformers. Do I think it’s as unsafe as heroin? Many others regulate sales of medical marijuana. It found that marijuana has the lowest risk of mortality and is safer than the rest in the study.

For instance, at a 2014 congressional hearing, former DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart declined to say whether or not marijuana was less risky than heroin or crack, and drew extensive criticism for her refusal, reported The Washington Post.

But now, 23 states have medical marijuana programs while four states – in addition to the District of Columbia – legalized marijuana for recreational purposes.

“It’s sort of remarkable that a DEA chief simply saying heroin is more unsafe than marijuana could actually make news,”said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, to the Huffington Post“.

And in that context, Rosenberg’s cautious acknowledgement on the relative safety of marijuana is indeed news.