Why is the DEA and ATF separate? Seems like they cover similar things from similar circles.
Is it because alcohol, tobacco, and firearms also have legal pathways? So they spend time tracking down cheats and checking/enforcing regulations?
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I'm still annoyed alcohol isn't administered by the Food and Drug Administration. It's both a food and a drug. I want nutrition labels (mostly for the calorie count) on my alcohol. They don't have them because the ATF does not require them as the FDA does.
Honestly, the ATF can just be split with half being folded into the FDA and the other half folded into the FBI. The ATF doesn't need to exist.
Although neither the ATF nor DEA existed before the 70s, part of the reason might have to do with ATF’s precursor existing for a really long time, before we cared about many other drugs. DEA pretty much came about under Nixon’s war on drugs.
But what about prohibition era gangsters smuggling guns cigarettes and liquor? How will we fight that scourge?
Take a look at their federal registers at the type of different actions they've been up to lately. You will see they are completely different.
https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-bureau
https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/drug-enforcement-administration