DUTCH TAKE ISSUE AGAIN WITH U.S. DRUGS ADVISER

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch health ministry on Thursday rejected claims
by U.S. drugs policy adviser General Barry McCaffrey that the nations
prisons were bursting at the seams as a direct result of its liberal drugs
policy.

Speaking to Reuters in Los Angeles on Wednesday, McCaffrey said Dutch
tolerance of soft drugs like marijuana had contributed to an explosion in
the jail population and a sharp rise in the number of drug users.

``The Dutch have consistently followed a harm-reduction policy ... In their
country, drug-abuse rates among their youngsters have gone way up under
this policy and their prison population has gone way up,'' McCaffrey said.

The United States preventative approach, in contrast, was a roaring
success, according to the White House adviser.

``Our model has resulted in lowering the rates of drug abuse in America by
50 percent. Cocaine use is down by 70 percent; drug-related murders are
down by a third; the armed forces are drug-free,'' he said.

At the Dutch health ministry, McCaffreys latest set of statistics were
greeted with as much disbelief as his extravagant claim last month that the
Dutch murder rate dwarfed the murder rate in the United States.

The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics produced figures then that put the
Dutch murder rate at less than a quarter of the U.S. level. On Thursday,
the health ministry produced another set of data to contradict Vietnam war
veteran McCaffrey.

According to the Dutch figures, hastily produced by a health ministry
spokesman, there are roughly 160 heroin addicts for every 100,000
inhabitants in the Netherlands.

In the United States, by comparison, there are around 430 addicts per
100,000 people, the spokesman said.

Prison statistics tell a similar story. According to Dutch figures, 73
people out of every 100,000 are serving a jail sentence in the Netherlands,
far below the 645 recorded for the U.S.

Cannabis consumption among 18-year-olds is also much lower in the
Netherlands, according to the health ministry.

``We know Mr McCaffreys views. We know he is against our coffee shops. We
know he is against our heroin programme,'' the spokesman said, referring to
two of the most controversial aspects of Dutch drugs policy.

So-called coffee shops peddle marijuana with impunity in the Netherlands,
with U.S. tourists among the most regular clients.

A pilot scheme to supply heroin to addicts judged incapable of kicking
their habit has also raised eyebrows in the United States. The Dutch say
the aim of the programme is not to wean addicts off drugs, but to improve
their health and cut crime.

McCaffrey visited the Netherlands last month as part of a European
fact-finding tour, and described his trip as ``useful.''

``Before he came he called our policy a total disaster. By the time he had
left he had scaled it down to a small disaster,'' the spokesman said.

An unbowed McCaffrey said on Wednesday: ``There was a huge uproar over
murder rates and crime stats, and was I right or wrong?... For an American
to suggest that their crime rates were higher than the U.S. absolutely blew
their mind.