DEA Hires Arizona Company to Burn Tons of Marijuana

Truckloads of marijuana confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is headed to Arizona to be burned.

The DEA awarded Tucson Iron & Metal with a contract to destroy mass quantities of marijuana over a 6-month period, Quartz reported. Tucson Iron & Metal obtained the contract because their incinerator is one of a few nationwide “capable of processing at least 1000 lbs./hr of bulk marijuana.”

The DEA’s contract solicitation DEA website says, “The integrity of the destruction process shall be such that the material to be destroyed cannot be redirected or retrieved once it is committed to destruction to a point where there are no detectable levels, as measured by standard analytical methods, of byproduct from the destruction process. DEA shall inspect the incinerator to ensure no drug residue remains.”

Requirements for the incineration site also include:

• Tall fencing obstructing the view of the public
• Employees must be subjected to drug tests
• Thorough background checks must be completed

The DEA will be on site and recording every single step of the destruction process.

U.S. Customs and Border Control is also looking for a company to incinerate confiscated marijuana between 8- and 12-times annually. This task, however, will also include the incineration of drugs other than cannabis, such as cocaine, heroin, opiates, methamphetamine and khat. The temperatures needed to destroy non-marijuana drugs are much higher – between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees.

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