From the Wall Street Journal:
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304753504579282940412941998A drug task force in Washington's Snohomish County has historically been funded in part by cash, cars, houses and other assets seized from marijuana purveyors. But with recreational pot becoming legal in the state, this funding is going up in smoke.
Snohomish's 22-officer drug-fighting operation, one of 19 such task forces in the state, brought in about $200,000 from forfeitures in marijuana cases in 2012—15% of its funding that year; the haul has exceeded $1 million in years past...
In Washington, forfeitures from pot cases processed by the federal government totaled $18.6 million from 2002 through 2012. Local law enforcement generated an additional $18 million in funding from forfeitures under state law in all types of drug cases in the five years ended in 2012, according to the state treasurer. Roughly one-third to one-half of that revenue typically comes from pot cases, according to a review of agencies' records...
In Colorado, forfeitures from pot cases processed by the federal government totaled nearly $18 million over the decade ended in 2012...