SENATE UNANIMOUSLY CONFIRMS PROSECUTOR AS DEA CHIEF

A longtime Justice Department drug prosecutor is expected to become the
first woman to head the Drug Enforcement Administration as the agency takes
a broader role in battling drug trafficking on the federal level.

Karen P. Tandy was confirmed as DEA chief late Thursday by unanimous
consent of the Senate, just hours after Attorney General John D. Ashcroft
had announced her appointment as acting administrator of the drug agency.
The formal appointment awaits a signature from President Bush.

Tandy, 49, is a native Texan who most recently served as associate deputy
attorney general. Ashcroft and other officials have credited Tandy with
helping to revitalize the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force,
which was formed during the Reagan administration and seeks to bring
together scores of law enforcement agencies on major drug cases.

Just this week, the task force announced indictments and hundreds of
arrests targeting a Mexico-based trafficking organization headed by Ismael
Zambada-Garcia, who is alleged to be one of the major importers of cocaine
into the United States.

Tandy's appointment also comes as the DEA is assuming a larger role in
leading major federal drug investigations while the FBI focuses more of its
resources on counterterrorism and counterintelligence. In addition, the
drug agency is preparing for the impending retirements of much of its
senior staff.

"My long-term plans are to really focus on priority targeting . . . so we
don't just take out a small piece of an organization, but truly wipe it
out," Tandy said yesterday in an interview. "We will never succeed in truly
dismantling these drug organizations unless we dry up their money supply."

Although Tandy's nomination was approved last month by the Senate Judiciary
Committee, some lawmakers questioned her role in the DEA's ongoing
crackdown on medicinal marijuana patients, who are generally exempted from
prosecution in California and eight other states. Many patients with
glaucoma, cancer and other illnesses say marijuana eases pain and discomfort.

In answers to written questions from Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who
voted against her nomination, Tandy said she would not support a moratorium
on DEA raids targeting the patients and their suppliers. "We are not going
to pick and choose which federal laws should apply in different areas,"
Tandy said yesterday.

Steve Fox, director of government relations for the District-based
Marijuana Policy Project, said his group was "saddened and disturbed that
the Senate has voted to continue these attacks on the sick, and did it in
the dead of night with no recorded vote and no debate."

Tandy takes over as director of the drug agency from former representative
Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), who earlier this year became border security chief
at the new Department of Homeland Security. The White House on Thursday
also nominated Michele M. Leonhart, head of the DEA's Los Angeles office,
to be Tandy's deputy.