From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Date: 13 Sep 93 20:51 PDT
Subject: CA Forfeiture Law Sunsets

The California State Legislature, on Friday, the last day of the
most recent session, in the conference committee, failed to pass
legislation re-authorizing the CA forfeiture law.  

That means that, until new legislation is brought forward, which
will almost certainly be in the next session, we revert to the
old law which allows forfeiture only upon conviction rather than
the law which is dying now which allows seizure on suspicion.   

According to Dale Gieringer or CAL NORML, "This is kind of what
we'd hoped would happen".

Opposition to reauthorization surprisingly came in large measure
from several prominent "property-rights" conservatives.  Make no
mistake, the federal forfeiture law is much more draconian than
the CA statute which just died.  When a new CA statute is
introduced, ask your reps to include provisions prohibiting state
police from "federalizing" their cases (sharing cases with the
feds so that the tougher, more confiscatory federal laws apply). 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Rosenfield                          Peacenet: [j n r] at [igc.org]
tel:  213-836-0926                      Compuserve: 72341,3027   
off:  213-721-5525 ext.300              fax:  213-722-6642

Please let me know when you read this.