You and the egg heads can argue about valid records. For me, the claim that civil assets forfeiture is a legal action against the property rather than the owner may sound good to the same bunch of eggheads, but not to anyone with a lick of common sense or respect for the constitution. Same thing for your claim that Chinese history has anything to do with the belief the war on drugs has overreached the constitutional boundaries.
I don't agree with civil asset forfeiture, and I don't really understand how anyone ever thought that wasn't a violation of the fifth amendment's prohibition on taking people's property without "due process."
Civil Asset forfeiture should never have been law.