TheDrug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States agency formed in 1973 "to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States."^[1][2] The agency was formed through an executive order signed by PresidentRichard Nixon in order to battle "an all-out global war on the drug menace."^[2]

History

The Bureau of Internal Revenue was the first government agency charged with enforcing federal drug laws in 1915. Enforcement changed hands over the following decades, including the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, until President Nixon deemed the issue to be problematic enough to create the Drug Enforcement Administration by signing an executive order in 1973. That year, the agency consisted of 1,470 agents with a budget of $74.9 million. Two years later, the agency had nearly doubled with 2,135 agents with a budget of $140.9 million.^[2]

In 1975, PresidentGerald Ford established the Domestic Council Drug Abuse Task Force, which reported that attention should be focused on the highly addictive drugs, concluding that marijuana and cocaine were of little or no concern compared to heroin and amphetamines. Still, the DEA continued to crack down on all drug smuggling operations. In 1981, with pressure from PresidentJimmy Carter, the Model Act, banning drug paraphernalia, began to pass instate legislatures.^[2]

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The Colombian drug trade, and in particular the Medellin cartel, took off in the early 1980s. A number of large operations, including Operation Grouper, Operation Tiburon, and Operation Swordfish, resulted in millions of pounds of marijuana and hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine being seized by the DEA. The DEA and PresidentRonald Reagan saw an opportunity to attack the drug problem in a different way in 1983, when Reagan started the National Drug Abuse Education and Prevention Week, seeking to lower the demand for drugs in the U.S.^[2]

By the mid-1980s, the evolution of cocaine into crack cocaine lowered the price of the drug and raised the purity level, making it in high demand and easily accessible. While the Medellin cartel dominated the southern United States in the cocaine trade, the Cali mafia began to take hold of the trade in the northeastern U.S., and crime rates related to crack cocaine began to skyrocket across the country. The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act began enforcing mandatory prison sentences for large-scale marijuana distributors, as well as increases in other penalties for drug trafficking. The 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act created the Office of National Drug Control Policy led by the "drug czar," who was charged with establishing and accomplishing long-term drug enforcement goals.^[2]

Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellin cartel was jailed in Colombia and later died in a standoff after escaping custody. His death led to the decline of the cartel in the early 1990s, allowing the DEA to focus fewer resources on cocaine smuggling from Colombia and more toward heroin smuggling from southeast Asia and methamphetamine from Mexico. In 1995, the leaders of the Cali mafia were arrested and the drug trade from south of the U.S. border shifted from Colombia to Mexico.^[2]

Mobile Enforcement Teams (MET) were established in 1995 because local police departments both had too few resources to effectively enforce the laws and were too recognizable to those in the drug trade. METs were trained and equipped to deal with larger scale drug busts and investigations. Between 1999 and 2003, the METs had been deployed in 380 locations across the country.^[2]

Measures aimed atlegalizing medicinal marijuana began appearing more frequently on ballots across the United States. Eight of the eleven ballot measures put forward to legalize medical marijuana in the 1990s passed. California was the first such instance in 1996 withProposition 215. In 2012,Colorado andWashington passed measures legalizing recreational marijuana. The passage of these measures created conflict between the DEA, charged with enforcing federal drug laws and medical marijuana businesses that were legal under state laws.^[2]

Structure

Mission

The official DEA mission statement is as follows:

Leadership

Note: Votes marked "N/A" represent voice votes or unrecorded votes. Missing votes will be filled as they are researched.

Organizational chart

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the termDrug + Enforcement + Administration

See also

• Central Intelligence Agency
• Federal Bureau of Investigation

External links

• Official DEA website

Footnotes

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United States Terms Adjudication (administrative state) •Administrative judge •Administrative law •Administrative law judge •Administrative state •Arbitrary-or-capricious test •Auer deference •Barrier to entry •Bootleggers and Baptists •Chevron deference (doctrine) •Civil servant •Civil service •Code of Federal Regulations •Codify (administrative state) •Comment period •Compliance costs •Congressional Record •Coordination (administrative state) •Deference (administrative state) •Direct and indirect costs (administrative state) •Enabling statute •Ex parte communication (administrative state) •Executive agency •Federal law •Federal Register •Federalism •Final rule •Formal rulemaking •Formalism (law) •Functionalism (law) •Guidance (administrative state) •Hybrid rulemaking •Incorporation by reference •Independent federal agency •Informal rulemaking •Joint resolution of disapproval (administrative state) •Major rule •Negotiated rulemaking •Nondelegation doctrine •OIRA prompt letter •Organic statute •Pragmatism (law) •Precautionary principle •Promulgate •Proposed rule •Publication rulemaking •Regulatory budget •Regulatory capture •Regulatory dark matter •Regulatory impact analysis •Regulatory policy officer •Regulatory reform officer •Regulatory review •Rent seeking •Retrospective regulatory review •Risk assessment (administrative state) •Rulemaking •Separation of powers •Significant regulatory action •Skidmore deference •Statutory authority •Substantive law and procedural law •Sue and settle •Sunset provision •Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions •United States Code •United States Statutes at Large Bibliography "Administrative Law - The 20th Century Bequeaths an 'Illegitimate Exotic' in Full and Terrifying Flower" by Stephen P. Dresch (2000) "Confronting the Administrative Threat" by Philip Hamburger and Tony Mills (2017) "Constitutionalism after the New Deal" by Cass R. Sunstein (1987) Federalist No. 23 by Alexander Hamilton (1787) "From Administrative State to Constitutional Government" by Joseph Postell (2012) "Interring the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule (2002) "Rulemaking as Legislating" by Kathryn Watts (2015) "The Checks & Balances of the Regulatory State" by Paul R. Verkuil (2016) "The Myth of the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Keith E. Whittington and Jason Iuliano (2017) "The Progressive Origins of the Administrative State: Wilson, Goodnow, and Landis" by Ronald J. Pestritto (2007) "The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State" by Gary Lawson (1994) "The Study of Administration" by Woodrow Wilson (1887) "The Threat to Liberty" by Steven F. Hayward (2017) "Why the Modern Administrative State Is Inconsistent with the Rule of Law" by Richard A. Epstein (2008) Agencies Administrative Conference of the United States •United States Civil Service Commission •U.S. Government Accountability Office •U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs •U.S. Office of Management and Budget