I wonder why some of the people who have had money confiscated haven't tried to reclaim it? Anyone?
Okay, being serious just for a minute...
People need to realise that one's stance on this discussion, like lots of other things, is a matter of opinion.
It boils down to this - do you give police the legal right to confiscate money if they have reason to believe it's been ill gotten from drug dealing or the like, accepting that in some cases this may be open to abuse (so some checks and balances need to be worked in, to make that as difficult as possible)? In doing so, you're likely to hit some dealers where it hurts - in the wallet - and you think the positive impact of this outweighs the risks inherent in the system.
Or, do you NOT grant this right, because YOUR OPINION is that the possibility of abuse or the legal precedent being set outweighs any possible benefit of financial penalty to the dealers? In doing so, you accept that in some cases, money from drug dealing will stay in the dealers' pockets, but the reason you accept that is because the first principle is more important to you.
Neither of these views is 100% right and the other wrong. Like I said, it's a question of opinion.