Drug Enforcement Administration Museum: Serious business in D.C.
You'd think that, having visited all the sites around Washington, D.C., you've seen it all. But you haven't until you've visited the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum.
This museum, of course, addresses a serious matter. Drugs -- illegal or otherwise -- are a serious matter, and that is the main message conveyed throughout the exhibits. Even if there are mannequins dressed in cop gear with pictures of giant colorful pills behind their heads, or the creative bongs of the 1960s, including a Kraft imitation mayonnaise jar. Less funny are the ones depicting dead individuals, hidden under white sheets. The museum, however, maintains a level of sanitation, so old police photos of drug overdose victims or drug-related murders are left out of the exhibits, though the topics are discussed.
Hosted by the DEA itself, the museum's foundation was created in 1976 to showcase badges, photos, documents and other paraphernalia of drug enforcement officers. As the years went by, the DEA realized that in order to best show their work, it needed to show the history of drug use in America. In 1999, an official museum was opened with an expanded repetoire and focus.
Housed in the DEA headquarters in Arlington, Va., the museum seeks to send not only a message about the brave agents who fight the war on drugs every day, but about the prominence that drug use, addiction and crime plays in the United States.
It begins its history back 150 years, back before the DEA was formed in 1914, to explore the use of drugs in the United States and around the world (such as China's opium dens). The museum is illustrated with odds and ends, from elevator shoes and a rabbit fur coat worn by undercover cops in the 1970s disco era, to various rolling papers and roach clips.
Other more notable items include a diamond-encrusted Colt 45 that belonged to drug lord Rafael Caro-Quintera, a teddy bear filled with drug money, the mini-spoons from McDonalds that had to be recalled because people used them to snort cocaine, and booby traps in marijuana fields. Posters from southeast Asia spell out “death to drug traffickers” and an exhibit of current-day prescription drug abuse is displayed called Good Medicine, Bad Behavior: Drug Diversion in America.
The museum continues to change its exhibits and introduce new ones. Some include “DEA: Air, Land and Sea” and Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists and You, which was widely successful. Guides are available to talk about the various exhibits and the battles fought by the DEA through the years.
HelloMetro Tip: It's been highly advised not to come to the museum high, which some visitors think is a great idea, because individuals on drugs will be arrested – after all, it is the Drug Enforcement Administration. Others will debate hotly about various issues with the guides, such as the legalization of marijuana. While the guides are happy to provide information, they do emphasize that their job is to enforce, not to question the law.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
