notes.husk.org/likes images.

A COLLECTION OF DEA TASK FORCE PATCHES»

Patches aren’t unique to the DEA – there are program and mission patches associated with many federal agencies and programs. One expert estimates there are 20,000 in existence today, some of which are historic relics and others in use. The most famous may be the patches made for NASA’s shuttle missions. But in the universe of federal patches, the DEA’s stand out for their outlandishness, as well as for showing a lighter, even flamboyant side of an agency that often presents itself as straight-laced and straight-edged.

On one patch, from the DEA’s Cocaine Intelligence Unit, the Grim Reaper sits on a bomb and does cocaine. On a patch made for the DEA’s International Conference on Ecstasy and Club Drugs, he goes to a rave holding glow-sticks and a pacifier. Other patches feature dragons, unicorns, camels and bald eagles swooping down on marijuana plants, talons outstretched.