Abstract
Despite its failure to achieve its desired objectives, the War on Drugs continues on into a fourth decade with disastrous effects and extensive collateral damage. The current article explores civil asset forfeiture as one motivation that keeps the current drug policy intact. Specifically, it advances the premise that the current state of civil asset forfeiture law creates goal displacement that motivates law enforcement agencies to implement drug enforcement strategies that aggressively pursue civil asset forfeitures as a means of supplementing their budgets rather than as a legitimate tool for decreasing the supply of illicit drugs. The article explores how this goal displacement not only negatively impacts the progress of the War on Drugs, but also how it leads to disregard for individual due process rights, sometimes with tragic and life-altering consequences for innocent individuals. A brief discussion of the necessary reforms to civil asset forfeiture law is included.

Jared Shoemaker
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jared Shoemaker is currently completing his Master of Arts in Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His future plans include pursuing a Ph.D. in criminal justice. His research interests include jury decision-making, capital punishment, and the application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to criminal justice issues. He may be contacted at shoema14@unlv.nevada.edu or at the Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 455009, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5009.