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"zero tolerance" of drug offenses; Many observers view the very notion of a "war on drugs," or at least the current priorities, targeting for special enforcement efforts strategies, and activities of that war, as those locations where drug activity is fundamentally misguided and wasteful of the particularly intense; billions of dollars being spent- Malor controversies have arisen over whether to attack stricter penalties against dealers, supply or demand. Tbere are reports of confusion including the death penalty in certain as to who u in charge, huge gaps between rhetoric cases; and reality, agonizing delays in the distribution of appropriated funds, lack of focus, and more realistic drug-war goals and tougher inadequate knowledge about and evaluation of priorities for allocating scarce alternative approaches.tb enforcement resources (those resources include law enforcement personnel, The war on drugs is complex and multifaceted. judges, prisons, treatment programs, and Witness, for example, the many applicable education programs, all of which are statutes, rules, and regulations; the mutture of widely viewed as insufEcient, overloaded, public and private sector activity; the multiple and unlikely--given government budget levels of international, Fderal, state, and local constraints--to receive adequate effort; the diverse inatitutiooa, such as churches, funding); schools, and the media; and the continuum from prevention through treatment. stepped-up border interdiction and pressure on foreign nations to control production of drugs within, and export The Emergence of Asset Forielture of drugs beyond, then borders; Law enforcement officials are placing increased use of employee drug testing; increasing emphasis on financial investigation and and forfeiture of assets used in. or obtained from, the illegal drug trade.r~ outright legalization of one or more of the prohibited drugs against which war In legal parlance, forfeiture usually refers is currently being waged to the legal process by which government can take property that was illegally used or acquired, of the pro need initiatives, such as without compensating the owner. Forfeiture is 1111 1!~'M'I'rr!"'lCII!"ILl'~tAf~!" an ancient legal doctrine that in recent years ~ has been revived as a wwpon in law enforcement, n or i are ~"~'1~'LL particularly drug enforcement. Federal, state, and local drug enforcement officials arc using forfeiture to take away a critical element of ru eras every criminal organization: "the illegally a eve o crime accumulated assets of its members."ts acne s ere u a ar uo a s arm u This strategy is part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's "integrated u c d court dockets and enforcement program," which has three lack of prison space often make a sham of efforts elements: trafficker arrests, drug removal, and to get tough with drug traffickers. asset removal/Fnancial investigation. Asset 15