US DRUG ADVISER MUTES HARSH CRITICISM OF NETHERLANDS

Mccaffrey Praises Treatment Centers

THE HAGUE - General Barry McCaffrey, the White House adviser on drug
policy, yesterday steered clear of a diplomatic row over Dutch drug policy,
avoiding a repetition of his earlier harsh criticism.

McCaffrey said he had gleaned valuable insight by visiting treatment
centers for Dutch drug addicts.

''We do have significant differences,'' he said. ''But I characterize the
visit as a very useful opportunity for me to hear what the Dutch are doing
and to learn.''

McCaffrey, on a European fact-finding mission, locked horns with Dutch
authorities earlier this week when he called Dutch drugs policy a
''disaster'' and said, mistakenly, that the murder rate in the Netherlands
outstripped that in the United States.

His figures, the Dutch pointed out, were based on incorrect data. According
to the government's Central Planning Bureau, the murder rate in the
Netherlands stood at 1.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1996, far below the
United States' 8.22 per 100,000.

Speaking to Dutch reporters, McCaffrey did not apologize for the error. His
figures, he said, came from Interpol.

''I shouldn't comment on Interpol data. ... I learned in college: don't
argue about facts,'' he said.

At the height of the row, the Dutch ambassador to the United States wrote a
letter of protest to the White House, and Foreign Affairs Minister Hans van
Mierlo summoned the US ambassador in The Hague, Terry Dornbush, to express
his displeasure.

Insisting his visit to the Netherlands had been useful, McCaffrey agreed
the Dutch and the US views often differed.

''I came with a bias that Dutch police were good. ... I cautioned my Dutch
partners that police of this high calibre can allow policy to work
adequately even when it may not be good policy,'' McCaffrey said.

He criticized a pilot program of the Dutch Health Ministry to issue free
heroin to hard-core addicts in an effort to reduce drug-related crime.

''It is our own view that this does not constitute drug treatment but
instead ends up in essence leaving and marginalizing an element of the
population,'' McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey, who stayed clear of coffee shops selling marijuana during his
visit, insisted there was an inherent danger in tolerating the use of soft
drugs.

''When I'm asked what the most dangerous drug in America is, my response
is: It's a 12-year-old regularly using marijuana,'' he said.

The Netherlands, often considered a front-runner in the area of drugs
tolerance, argues there should be a strict separation between hard and soft
drugs policy.

It tolerates the small-scale use of soft drugs but actively discourages the
use of hard drugs.