UPDATE [3:11pm]: Official word from the office of Attorney General Eric Holder is that Leonhart “retired.”

Embattled Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart, who has come under intense criticism for her failure to rein in a culture of excess at her federal agency, is expected to resign soon, according to CNN. Leonhart, a holdover from the Bush administration who couldn’t answer Congressional questions about the relative harms of cannabis and heroin and who has most recently become the subject of a “no confidence” vote by 23 members of Congress, met with top Justice Department officials to discuss the transition of the leadership of the DEA to someone else.

In an inspired bit of timing, reports the cable news agency, the meeting occurred yesterday — 4/20.

According to CNN correspondent Evan Perez, high-level members of the Obama administration had been waiting for “the right moment” to push Leonhart out, given her persistent defiance of the White House’s priorities on extending federalist principles to states legalizing cannabis for either medical or adult use. The Colombian “sex party” scandal, combined with Leonhart’s poor performance defending her agency’s handling of the matter before Congress, provided Obama with just that moment, reports Perez. Indeed, some outlets speculated that the agency chief’s job may have been in jeopardy after reports leaked of defiant comments made by Leonhart to a group of sheriffs gathered in Washington, D.C. last year, in which she “slammed” her boss Obama for declaring that marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol.

Leonhart’s unpopularity has been growing for years. A change.org petition devoted to her firing and posted by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) has already received over 46,000 signatures and the Drug Policy Alliance has already posted a petition requesting that Obama replace her with a reform-minded candidate. “Most Americans, including President Obama, recognize the fact that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol,” said Dan Riffle, MPP’s director of federal policies. “Yet, Ms. Leonhart was unwilling to even acknowledge that marijuana poses less potential harm than heroin and methamphetamine.”

“While there is only so much good a person can do while enforcing some of the most unjust laws this country has ever seen, we are hopeful that the next DEA administrator will do a better job than Ms. Leonhart,” said Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “And considering her track record, that shouldn’t be too difficult a task.”