The topic that I was assigned to write about was Federal Agency. Of the many agencies available to write about I chose the Drug Enforcement Administration, (DEA) which enforces controlled substance laws. Throughout this paper I will discuss some interesting parts of the DEA including the history of the DEA, responsibilities and objectives of the DEA, problems the DEA faces and how the DEA works cooperatively with local law enforcement agencies. The DEA is an important link in drug prevention in and around the United States. They are specifically involved with the prevention of drug abuse and drug trafficking. The Drug Enforcement Administration is a United States Department of Justice Law Enforcement agency tasked with suppressing the sale of recreational drugs of abuse and enforcing the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
The History of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The long, proud, and honorable tradition of the federal drug enforcement agency began in 1915 with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In the decades to follow several federal agencies had drug law enforcement responsibilities. By the 1960's the two agencies charged with drug law enforcement were the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. It was during this period that America underwent a significant change. The introduction of drugs into American culture and the efforts to normalize drug use started to take a terrible toll on the nation. Nevertheless, American children could still walk to school in relative safety, worrying only about report cards and the neighborhood bully. Today however, as children approach their schools, they see barbed wire, metal detectors, and signs warning drug dealers that school property is a drug free zone. In too many communities, drug dealers and gunfire force proper, law abiding citizens to seek refuge behind locked doors. .
In 1960, only four million Americans had ever tried drugs.