DEA Chief: Marijuana As Medicine Is 'A Joke'

(CBS4) - The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration dismissed the notion that smoking marijuana should be a medically approved act anywhere in comments to reporters this week.

According to a CBS News report, Chuck Rosenberg said that smoking pot "has never been safe or effective as a medicine."

Rosenberg stated that there are qualities of cannabis that could be extracted and used medicinally, but the act of smoking pot "is bad and dangerous ... don't call it medicine -- that is a joke."

A new report from the DEA titled 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary states that drug use is up among most types of illegal drugs, and that more than 120 deaths are attributed to drug overdoses in the U.S. on a daily basis.

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Marijuana is legal in Colorado and four other states.

Voters in Ohio rejected legalization of marijuana in elections there this week.