1/07/93
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG
 Associated Press Writer
   SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Laws allowing police to confiscate assets of
drug dealers are misused against innocent people, defense lawyers
say, but prosecutors defend them as deterrents to crime.
   Overzealous officers nationwide are seizing homes, cars and other
items from innocent people in their efforts to halt the sales of
narcotics, says Alan Ellis of the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers.
   "The process has run amuck," Ellis told the President's
Commission on Model State Drug Laws on Wednesday. "Law enforcement
agencies, in their zeal, have turned the war on drugs into a war on
the Constitution. A tide of abuse against innocent people is
sweeping the nation."
   But an Arizona assistant attorney general told the commission
Wednesday that property drug dealers buy with illicit profits is
rightfully subject to seizure, even before such people are convicted
of a crime.
   Sandra Janzen said drug asset forfeiture statutes send drug
dealers the powerful message that their activities could cost them
thousands, and perhaps millions, of dollars.
   They were among nine experts who testified at the first of five
public hearings before the bipartisan commission.
   President Bush appointed the commission's 24 members in October
to find ways of eliminating illegal drug use in the United States.
So far, they've been met with a barrage of criticism about the
forfeiture laws, which fall under the Comprehensive Crime Control
Act of 1984.
   Among the questions the panel is studying is whether a person's
assets should be confiscated before a conviction, whether to
increase the prosecution's burden of proof in such cases and whether
property should be seized in minor cases.
   Current law allows police to rely on "rank hearsay" in seizing
the car or home of a parent whose child is involved with drugs. It
also permits the seizure of land from someone who grows a small
amount of marijuana for personal medicinal use.
   Since 1985, alleged drug assets totalling $2.6 billion have been
seized nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
   The commission also has scheduled hearings in Detroit on Jan. 27,
in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 17, in Philadelphia on March 10, and
Portland, Ore., on March 31.