Rep. Henry Hyde and the other supporters of the recent House
asset-forfeiture reform bill deserve our thanks. It is heartening to
see conservatives like Hyde and Rep. Bob Barr acknowledge flaws in our
get-tough-at-any-cost anti-drug policies.

Like Prohibition, the government's previous quasi-military crusade
against private behavior, the drug war "makes a crime of things that
are not crimes" (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln), thereby demonizing
innocent people, discouraging respect for the law in general and,
incidentally, spawning an untaxed, unregulated, extremely violent,
hugely profitable international drug-supply industry.

Prohibition died when even its champions realized it was far more
corrupting, wasteful and destructive than alcohol use had ever been.
Existing asset-forfeiture law, a clear corruption of the Fourth
Amendment, has been but one corrosive consequence of the misguided
"war on drugs."

We should encourage our senators to follow the House's lead in
reforming it. Perhaps, once one tactic in the drug war has been
reevaluated, legislators will consider a thoughtful reassessment of
our entire national drug policy.

Lucy Richert,
Seattle