EUROPE'S DRUG LESSONS

To the Editor:

In your July 17 news article "U.S. Drug Chief Sees How Dutch Manage Liberal
Drug Program," Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey says that the most important aspect
of his trip to Europe was "to discover how to use methadone as a tool to
deal with heroin addiction."

What General McCaffrey knows from the American experience with methadone is
that it works well. So well that the National Institutes of Health has
endorsed it as the most effective treatment for the greatest number of
people addicted to heroin. There's no need to sit back and watch other
countries' success with methadone.

What General McCaffrey needs to do is to make methadone treatment more
available to those who need it.

HOLLY CATANIA New York, July 17, 1998

The writer is a senior research associate at the Lindesmith Center.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)