Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 Source: Reuters Author: Abigail Schmelz U.S. DRUG CZAR BASHES DUTCH POLICY ON EVE OF VISIT STOCKHOLM, July 13 (Reuters) - A top U.S. policy official attacked tolerant Dutch drugs laws on Monday, blaming them for much higher rates of murder and other crime than in the United States. ``The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States. The per capita crime rates are much higher than the United States,'' General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drugs policy chief, told a press briefing in Stockholm. McCaffrey said the United States had 8.22 murders per 100,000 people in 1995 compared to 17.58 in The Netherlands. Overall per capita crime rates in the United States totalled 5,278 per 100,000 compared to 7,928 in the Netherlands, he said. ``The overall crime rate in Holland is probably 40 percent higher than the United States. That's drugs,'' McCaffrey said. McCaffrey was in Sweden as part of a seven-country European tour which will include the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. While Dutch crime rates were on the rise, those in the United States were falling, he said. He said U.S. drug-related murders were down by one-third and crime rates had fallen sharply because of a reduction in drug abuse rates, especially of cocaine and stimulants. McCaffrey said the Swiss addiction rate was much higher than that of the United States or anywhere else in Europe. ``Why is it they're happy about what they're doing? I'll go and try to listen to why they think they should go this route and what evidence they have that it's working.'' He praised Sweden's policy, where no differentiation is made between softer drugs, such as marijuana, and cocaine and heroin. Similarly, the French government last month rejected mounting calls to decriminalise soft drugs following an official report which concluded drinking was far more of a health hazard than smoking cannabis. ``We've found we have a lot in common,'' Swedish Health and Social Affairs Minister Margot Wallstrom told Reuters. ``We have a brave goal -- a goal of a drug-free society. We're eager to see arguments towards drug legalisation stopped within the European Union,'' she said after meeting McCaffrey. In Sweden, where the government keeps a tight rein on alcohol and sales are only allowed through a state-run monopoly, both possesion and use of drugs are illegal. Alcohol is heavily taxed and blamed for many of the country's social ills. The Netherlands, a front runner in drugs tolerance, recently started giving free heroin to hard-core addicts through a health ministry project in a pilot programme. Dutch officials said its programme differed from a similar one in Switzerland to give heroin to addicts because the Dutch scheme involved people under medical supervision. McCaffrey said Amsterdam was probably Europe's chief drug market and was now exporting synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy to Britain and the United States. The government of the Netherlands has already rebuked McCaffrey for comments on a U.S. television show where he called Dutch policy a ``disaster.'' It said this was unhelpful and called into question the source of the facts and figures he was quoting. ``I must say that I find the timing of your remarks, six days before your planned visit to the Netherlands with a view to gaining first-hand knowledge about Dutch drugs policy and its results, rather astonishing,'' Joris Vos, Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a letter to McCaffrey. U.S. officials made a copy of the letter available to reporters. - ---