DUTCH HAVE FEWER DRUG USERS THAN THOUGHT -STUDY

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) - The Netherlands has significantly fewer
cannabis users than its reputation as a soft drugs haven might
suggest, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The study, financed by the health ministry and conducted by Amsterdam
University and the Central Bureau of Statistics, is the first to
document national drugs use.

It found 15.6 percent of Dutch people aged 12 and over had used or
tried cannabis, versus a U.S. figure of 32.9 percent.

The Dutch study, published on Tuesday and which spanned 1997 and early
1998, determined 2.5 percent of those aged 12 and over had used
cannabis within the last month.

"(This) amounts to some 323,000 people, and is thus significantly
lower than the estimate of 675,000 used by the (Dutch) government,"
the study said.

In contrast, U.S. National Household Survey data for 1997 compiled by
the Washington-based Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) determined 5.1 percent of Americans were
recent cannabis users.

"The figures show that a repressive drugs policy, as implemented in
the U.S., does not necessarily reduce drugs use," the Dutch study
said. "(Ease of) availability is not a determining factor for the use
of drugs in a country."

The findings run counter to remarks made by U.S. drugs policy adviser
General Barry McCaffrey, who last summer sparked a diplomatic spat
when he said Dutch leniency on soft drugs use had led to an explosion
in the jail population and a sharp rise in the number of users.

By contrast the United States' hard line on drugs had cut abuse rates
in America by 50 percent, McCaffrey said.