Abstract

The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda

The article presents a critical story related to the U.S.'s drug policy. Nineteen eighty-four was the year that the U.S. Congress rewrote the civil forfeiture law to funnel drug money and "drug related" assets into the police agencies that seize them. This amendment offered law enforcement a new source of income, limited only by the energy police and prosecutors were willing to put into seizing assets. Between 1985 and 1991 the Justice Department collected more than $1.5 billion in illegal assets. Local law enforcement benefited from a separate "equitable sharing" provision, which allows local police to federalize a forfeiture. This law gives police a way to circumvent their own state forfeiture laws, which often require police to share forfeited assets with school boards, libraries, drug education programs or the general fund.