The DEA

President Richard Nixon wants the federal government to have a high profile when it comes to fighting drugs — which he has identified as "public enemy number one." He doesn't find an ally in the chief of the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), John Ingersoll. Ingersoll's tactic is to go after big traffickers, which takes years and doesn't make for splashy press. He avoids getting involved at the local level. The commissioner of the Customs Department, Myles Ambrose, proves more agreeable to Nixon's plan. Ambrose values a federal presence at every level and believes that going after the little guys will lead to the big dealers. In a memo to the president, he proposes a consolidated federal agency that targets drugs locally and internationally.

Accordingly, in 1972, Ambrose is appointed head of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE), composed of some agents from the BNDD and Customs. ODALE is underfunded, but the agency manages to put a federal face on street-level drug enforcement. In 1973, Nixon proposes a further consolidation: ODALE, the Customs narcotics division, and the BNDD will be combined into a special division of the Justice Department called the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The first leader of the agency is John R. Bartels Jr.

DEA agents are primarily focused on narcotics. Neither cocaine nor marijuana are priorities at this time. From the very beginning, this is an aggressive, gung-ho force, charging into people's homes first and asking questions later. The "war on drugs" is underway.