• Police try to curb the flow of illegal drugs and their proceeds.Heroin and money image by Hunta from Fotolia.com
  
  According to a 2010 FBI report, an American is arrested for a drug-related crime every 18 seconds. To combat drug trafficking and consumption, the government reserves for itself many crucial powers. Drug enforcement policy exists on all levels of government, from municipalities to the federal government, and encompasses civil, criminal and international treaty law.
  
  

Asset Forfeiture

• Under asset forfeiture laws, law enforcement officers in the United States can seize property if the police suspect it is being used in connection with a crime. Criminal asset forfeiture is done when criminal charges are filed, but civil asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize goods without charging (or even arresting) the property owner. The owner can bring the asset forfeiture to court and try to win back the property in a civil lawsuit. This differs significantly from criminal cases, as the law enforcement agency needn't establish the person's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but instead must only establish guilt based a preponderance of evidence.
  
  Civil asset forfeiture is common in drug trafficking cases, where traffickers will often legally remove themselves and their property from the incriminating evidence. "Asset forfeiture laws allow the government to take the ill-gotten gains of drug kingpins and use them to put more cops on the streets," said President George W. Bush in defense of asset forfeiture.
  
  

Mandatory minimum sentencing

• The legislative branch sometimes passes mandatory minimum sentencing laws which dictate to a judge the lowest legal penalty that can be imposed on a convicted suspect. For example, if the law dictates a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment for smuggling 20 kilograms of cocaine, the judge cannot sentence a defendant convicted of that crime to less than 20 years.
  
  Proponents argue that the laws make drug suspects more likely to inform on high-level dealers to avoid prosecution. "The sole exception for a mandatory minimum sentence exists when the government says that a drug offender has given 'substantial assistance' to the government in the prosecution of another drug offender," explained former Congressional Counsel Eric E. Sterling in a PBS interview. "Over the last five years nearly a third of the people sentenced in drug trafficking cases in the federal system had their sentences reduced under the substantial assistance provisions because they informed on other people."
  
  

Extradition Treaties

• To combat international drug smuggling into the United States, the U.S. government has signed numerous extradition treaties with countries known as major drug production and trafficking centers. Many notorious drug kingpins, such as Carlos Lehder and Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, have been extradited to the United States to be tried in the American legal system.
  
  

Control of Precursor Chemicals

• The government works to reduce illegal drug production by controlling precursor chemicals necessary for the manufacture of illegal drugs. While not necessarily intoxicants themselves, chemicals such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are used to produce methamphetamine, while Safrole and MDP2P are used to produce MDMA (ecstasy). As these chemicals often have legitimate commercial uses, they are often difficult to control. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration keeps a list of chemicals that must be registered if purchased.