Isn't the DEA being in charge of this like the FBI passing laws?
Why does the DEA have this power?
Because Richard Nixon hated hippies and wanted to set up a nearly unaccountable police agency to persecute them. I'm not kidding and only exaggerating a little bit.
The DEA basically overseas things that aren't medicinal drugs and supplements - more in the range of recrational drugs. They also do some work investigating "suspicious" prescriptions and things like that For example, pharmacies have to report some drugs and numbers to the DEA and follow some of their rules for opiates. DEA rules means you are limited on how much Sudafed you can purchase at once because it is used as an ingredient for making meth. In addition, I'm not sure the FDA has that sort of manpower to check up on that stuff.
In a way, the two agencies overlap. In this case, they were treating it as a street drug only - which is purely under the realm of the DEA.
They overstepped their authority in attempting to schedule kratom, as it is old, natural, and not particularly dangerous.
We can't wait for Congress because Congress is too slow! (Well, this one does make some sense as Congress seems to be deadlocked all the time...)
We need warrantless wiretaps and NSLs because it takes too long to get a warrant!
We need to detain people without a warrant because, again, we have no time to go find a judge!
We need to torture these terrorists because the next attack might come any minute and who doesn't like Jack Bauer?
There are lots of good arguments for and against this, but it is the primary reason why presidential elections are so important in the USA.
If the DEA does have this power … isn't there overlap between the FDA and the DEA?
The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, also serving the executive branch.
Sorry, I don't know, but it is a good question, about what policy determines, which department is responsible for what.
their domains overlap because the prohibition culture of the U.S. government does not treat "drugs" rationally (i.e. as if they were simply medicines) but rather has tied the entire concept up in a gordian knot of fear, racism, social engineering, and in-group selection.
similarly, alcohol and tobacco, despite obviously being "drugs" even according to the logic of the federal government bureaucracy, are given their own police agency as well, because the DEA was tasked with persecuting hippies and brown-skinned people, whereas the ATF was tasked with shooting up disobedient white people.
I found it an extraordinary read.