Drug Enforcement Administration DEA

President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration on July 1, 1973, through a reorganization plan that merged the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and several other federal drug units into a single agency. Its main legal tool is the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which places drugs into five schedules based on medical use and potential for abuse. The DEA is led by an Administrator confirmed by the Senate.

With roughly ten thousand employees, including several thousand special agents, and offices in dozens of countries, the DEA investigates major drug trafficking organizations, from Mexican cartels to money launderers, and works with foreign governments and other federal agencies. It also regulates the legal drug supply: doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, and manufacturers must register with the DEA to handle controlled substances, and it sets annual production quotas for drugs such as opioids and stimulants.

Drug scheduling decisions are made jointly with the Department of Health and Human Services. A proposal begun in 2024 to move marijuana from Schedule I to the less restrictive Schedule III stalled amid administrative hearings, while the DEA's focus increasingly shifted to fentanyl trafficked by cartels, which the administration designated as foreign terrorist organizations in 2025. Proposals to merge the ATF into the DEA and debates over the effectiveness of the drug war continue.