A Proposed Bill to Limit Use of Forfeiture Funds by DEA for Marijuana Seizures

(Winter 2015) A proposed, bipartisan bill, Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Administration for Marijuana Suppression Act, will prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from passing federal forfeiture funds or seized property to federal, state or local agencies to be used for “any purpose pertaining to” the DEA’s marijuana eradication program. In 2013, the eradication program enabled the DEA to funnel $18 million in federal forfeiture funds to over 120 local and state agencies. The funds helped with eliminating grow sites, arresting 6,300 individuals, eradicating over 4.3 million marijuana plants, seizing $27.3 million in assets and removing 4,989 weapons from cannabis growers.

At the heart of the issue addressed by the proposed bill is funding programs with civil forfeiture which does not require a conviction or even charging a person with a crime to seize their property. Unlike criminal forfeiture that occurs only after a criminal conviction is gained through due process under the law, numerous Americans have lost property per civil forfeiture actions without being charged or convicted of a crime. Analysis by the Institute for Justice found that 78% of properties in the Department of Justice system were seized from civil forfeiture compared with 22% from criminal forfeiture.

Over the last 30 years forfeiture amounts have grown from $27 million to over $2 billion. One objective of the bill is to stem an incentive to “police for profit.”

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