Furthermore, this bill is truly a piece of sham legislation, because it gives the false appearance of creating a remedy for people injured by the drug trade while in fact it will accomplish nothing at all. In that respect, enacting this bill would be worse than doing nothing at all. This bill will not work because the drug dealers it targets are unlikely to be deterred by the threat of civil liability. By nature, drug dealers are not risk adverse. On a daily basis, they risk violence at the hands of competitors and arrest and imprisonment at the hands of law enforcement officers.
Major dealers are expert in hiding and laundering their assets.
If they have assets and are prosecuted, it is likely that their assets will have already been forfeited to the government under existing laws. Small dealers will not be deterred by the threat of civil liability, because they are virtually judgment proof. And the same is the story for new entrants, who are willing to risk much more than the threat of a civil law suit for access to the anticipated profits of dealing. In short, because this proposal is not likely to deter drug dealing, it is not worth the cost of setting up the elaborate system it requires. And its cost on our system of law is considerable.