VRAKKING: CRACK PROVISION IN OPIUM DEN

AMSTERDAM - The Department of Justice in Amsterdam wants to extend the
experiment with medical provision of heroin to crack. And it already
has a name for it: the city opium den.

This says the departing Chief Attorney J. Vrakking in an interview
with this newspaper tomorrow.

"I suggest creating a kind of "city opium dens" where psychotropic
substances, if necessary even crack, are to be dispensed." According
to mr. Vrakking, the evaluation report of the heroin project for
subjects suffering from long-term addiction will also demand such an
extension. Until now provision of other substances than heroin was
taboo.

A city spokesperson confirms that the three major cities [Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, Utrecht (HB)] have recently urged on getting a wider
provision from Minister Borst. It is said that crack was not discussed.

City Elderman G. ter Horst reacts positively. She finds the Justice
Department's attitude remarkable, for the City Triangle consisting of
Justice Department, Police and Mayor was against such extension until
now. Now the Justice Department has changed its stance she wants to
take up this matter at the upcoming meeting with the new Mayor and the
new Chief Attorney.

If the official evaluation of the heroin experiment, to be released
next year, turns out to be positive, Elderman ter Horst wants to
extend the project to day centers and user rooms. A limited form of
"in-house dealers" could be allowed there. Prescription heroin is
currently only provided at the G.G. & G.D. [City Health Service, HB].

User rooms outside the center of Amsterdam now often remain unused
because addicts depend on dealers operating in the city center for the
delivery of their drugs. Hence they look for a place to use there. By
allowing a limited form of in-house dealer this problem can be solved.

Nationally some six hundred addicts participate in the heroin
provision experiment of whom 130 in Amsterdam. The project is intended
for long-term addicts that cannot kick their habits. The requirements
for participation are strict. Participants are not allowed to use any
drugs other than heroin, while the (side-)use of smokable cocaine is
the biggest problem.

Vrakking expects that his successor D.A L. de Wit will take up his
plea for extension of rooms and facilities for substance provision.
"De Wit is used to things like this in Rotterdam".

Chairman Jan van Ree of the Central Commission for the Support of
Heroin Provision (CCBH) finds Vrakking's plea premature. "Parliament
will never allow extension of the provision when the results of the
current experiment are not yet known".