Recovery Act Funding

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly known as the Recovery Act, funds DEA grants to states for drug enforcement. States use the grant money to fund antidrug initiatives. The state of California, for example, provides grants to law enforcement agencies through the state's Anti-Drug Abuse Enforcement Team Recovery Act Program and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG). States, including California, combine other grants from the Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of Justice Assistance with Recovery Act money to collect a significant fund for state grant awards.
  
  

Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program

• DEA state grants also provide funding to identify cannabis farms and destroy the marijuana production. These official grants, issued under the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program, supply money to state agencies to employ and train agents and fund operations. The "Wall Street Journal" in 2009 reported law enforcement officials from at least seven counties in California used federal grants from the eradication and suppression program. The funds supplying antidrug efforts to the counties -- including Riverside in the southern part of the state and Del Norte, adjacent to the Oregon border -- accounted for approximately 25 percent of money received by California through the grant in 2009.
  
  

Cleanup and Disposal of Hazardous Materials

• The Drug Enforcement Agency also provides grant money for local law enforcement in geographic areas with significant problems with methamphetamine production at makeshift labs. Grant payments, under a system of state meth task force agreements, includes funding for proper safety equipment for local law enforcement and materials to wrap confiscated lab equipment. The grants occasionally fund disposal of the contaminated items by the local authorities, but this service provision varies with the yearly federal budget funding the DEA. The federal agency also supplies money to local law enforcement offices to hire certified officers capable of cleaning methamphetamine lab sites. The DEA also assists in locating local certified assistance for local offices, if necessary.
  
  

State and Local Enforcement Teams

• Nebraska offers funds to drug enforcement agencies working at the county and local levels as part of the Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program. This grant program enables dissemination of law enforcement drug data to rural law enforcement agencies. State and local drug enforcement programs also have options for applying directly for special categorical grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG).
  
  The DEA also offers grants to states located along the U.S. border with Mexico. The goals of this program include improvement of southern border jails and detention facilities, as well as funding for national training for local and state law enforcement officers. The grants also pay for information sharing among various law enforcement agencies.