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

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