Asset Forfeiture Laws and The Drug War

What is it about?

Drug arrests have increased steadily for going on 30 years, yet drug use has fluctuated wildly during the same period. Some have argued (and found) that state forfeiture laws may explain variation in drug arrests. Using data from 572 agencies, we sought to replicate such Jindings and test their robustness by invoking a variety of forfeiture measures. Our findings indicate that drug asset forfeiture (AF) laws (and even past forfeiture activities) have no discernible eflect on drug arrest rates.

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Why is it important?

Our findings suggest that variation in drug arrest rates cannot be explained by drug AF laws alone and therefore indicates a need to concentrate on other indicators of drug arrests. Our data indicate that drug arrest rates vary from state to state and this variation has no discernable relationship to state forfeiture laws. For AF critics, perhaps a more important inquiry is not whether money matters in the forfeiture context, but how, if property is forfeited, the proceeds should be spent.