This letter is in response to a letter written by Eric A. Voth on the
forfeiture laws (6/26). He was defending our forfeiture laws, and
before I read the bottom of the letter, where it said he is chairman
of the International Drug Strategy Institute, I thought, this man has
to be either a cop, relative of a cop, or someone involved in
government in some way.

Our forfeiture laws are unconstitutional, they have created massive
corruption in every aspect of law enforcement, and this man is
insisting they are good!

Voth states that the forfeiture laws hits the drug dealers where it
hurts, their bank accounts. He also stated that rather than
criticizing police for using forfeiture funds, we should applaud them
for holding down tax subsidies of law enforcement. If the forfeiture
laws are pulling in so much money, then why is our government spending
billions on the war on drugs?

How many innocent people have been shot by the police barging into a
wrong house, lives and families destroyed from this supposedly good
war on drugs. Forfeiture is not an important tool. It breeds police
corruption. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, and too many innocent people
get caught in the middle.

Mary Gale Smith,
Burnt Ranch, Ca.