DEA Featured in Spike TV Series

In 1973 the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was established by President Nixon, and is now the focus of a new six-part Spike TV series featuring the War on Drugs in Detroit. According to The Toronto Sun April 2, 2008 article,("War on Drugs a Total Bust") 'Cameras are rolling as Group 14 of the Drug Enforcement Administration - a unit that's tackled 100 cases over the past year resulting in more than 200 busts and $9 million in seizures - executes warrants and high-risk takedowns. These scenes do not deviate from fictional portrayals: unmarked vehicles roll into dodgy neighbourhoods carrying a squad of heavily armed agents in flak jackets. The agents race toward the target house in stack formation. They use metal Hallagan tools to pry open screens. They smash doors from hinges with battering rams. In a disorienting haze of shouts, threats and constant identification, they storm the premises, guns drawn. If all goes according to plan, the suspects will be subdued without incident during the controlled chaos."

The article states, "The mission here, it seems, is to provide some exposure to an agency that lives in the pop-cultural shadow of the FBI and CIA. DEA is about visceral danger, it is about understanding street-level tactics, it is about learning the vernacular: 'buy-walk,' 'buy-bust,' 'the flip,' 'confidential informants.' So what you get is a high-octane sprint across the front lines of the drug war without any rooting sense of context. As such, DEA has the pulse of Cops, the heartbeat of World's Wildest Police Chases, but none of the contemplative sobriety of The Wire. There's no question these agents are brave."

The article adds, "But after one hour, you can't help but wonder if they appreciate the intractable, cyclical and arguably winless nature of the war they've been asked to fight. This year, the DEA has a budget of $2.3 billion. The administration employs more than 11,000 agents, investigators and intelligence specialists. There are 227 offices in America alone, with another 86 branches in 62 countries. Are these enormous resources making even the slightest dent in the global drug trade? Or is the 'war on drugs' a metaphorical abstraction that, four decades later, continues to be crushed by the weight of its own impractical solutions?"