Valerie Vande Panne

“Abolish the DEA”

“It’s a Nixonian aberration … It’s only been around 40 years. Its functions can easily be handled by other agencies. I think it’s been proven over the decades that it’s both inimical to scientific policy and that it’s hopelessly corrupt and scandalous. You can go back year after year, administrator after administrator, and these scandals of abuse—and even murder—continue.”

“Abolish the DEA,” says Smith, “and let this guy go out and earn an honest living.”

On the new head of the DEA, in The Daily Beast.