An assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a conversation with me, once referred to the then-new federal courthouse in Manhattan as "The House that Drugs Built." It was a nice building, too. Cost a lot of money to build.

One of the concerns that has been raised about the federal RICO statutes, which are frequently used in drug-related cases, is that they include pre-trial seizure of assets that were supposedly used in the crimes or that resulted from the ill-gotten gains (such as a car purchased with money from drug sales). Among other things, this has resulted in at least one instance of an attorney's home being seized because the attorney received payment from a client who was charged with drug related crimes, and the attorney also had a home on which he paid a mortgage.

This is completely out of hand. You note that Reagan started throwing dollars at the problem -- did the documentary deal with Iran/Contra? Reagan was simultaneously importing drugs and exporting arms. But no one remembers that. They remember that he had some cute phrases like "War on Drugs" and the like.

Peace.