U.S. DRUG CZAR BASHES DUTCH POLICY ON EVE OF VISIT

STOCKHOLM, July 13 (Reuters) - A top U.S. policy official attacked tolerant
Dutch drugs laws on Monday, blaming them for much higher rates of murder
and other crime than in the United States.

``The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States. The per
capita crime rates are much higher than the United States,'' General Barry
McCaffrey, the White House drugs policy chief, told a press briefing in
Stockholm.

McCaffrey said the United States had 8.22 murders per 100,000 people in
1995 compared to 17.58 in The Netherlands. Overall per capita crime rates
in the United States totalled 5,278 per 100,000 compared to 7,928 in the
Netherlands, he said.

``The overall crime rate in Holland is probably 40 percent higher than the
United States. That's drugs,'' McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey was in Sweden as part of a seven-country European tour which will
include the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. While Dutch crime rates
were on the rise, those in the United States were falling, he said.

He said U.S. drug-related murders were down by one-third and crime rates
had fallen sharply because of a reduction in drug abuse rates, especially
of cocaine and stimulants.

McCaffrey said the Swiss addiction rate was much higher than that of the
United States or anywhere else in Europe.

``Why is it they're happy about what they're doing? I'll go and try to
listen to why they think they should go this route and what evidence they
have that it's working.''

He praised Sweden's policy, where no differentiation is made between softer
drugs, such as marijuana, and cocaine and heroin.

Similarly, the French government last month rejected mounting calls to
decriminalise soft drugs following an official report which concluded
drinking was far more of a health hazard than smoking cannabis.

``We've found we have a lot in common,'' Swedish Health and Social Affairs
Minister Margot Wallstrom told Reuters.

``We have a brave goal -- a goal of a drug-free society. We're eager to see
arguments towards drug legalisation stopped within the European Union,''
she said after meeting McCaffrey.

In Sweden, where the government keeps a tight rein on alcohol and sales are
only allowed through a state-run monopoly, both possesion and use of drugs
are illegal. Alcohol is heavily taxed and blamed for many of the country's
social ills.

The Netherlands, a front runner in drugs tolerance, recently started giving
free heroin to hard-core addicts through a health ministry project in a
pilot programme.

Dutch officials said its programme differed from a similar one in
Switzerland to give heroin to addicts because the Dutch scheme involved
people under medical supervision.

McCaffrey said Amsterdam was probably Europe's chief drug market and was
now exporting synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy to Britain and the United
States.

The government of the Netherlands has already rebuked McCaffrey for
comments on a U.S. television show where he called Dutch policy a
``disaster.'' It said this was unhelpful and called into question the
source of the facts and figures he was quoting.

``I must say that I find the timing of your remarks, six days before your
planned visit to the Netherlands with a view to gaining first-hand
knowledge about Dutch drugs policy and its results, rather astonishing,''
Joris Vos, Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a letter to
McCaffrey.

U.S. officials made a copy of the letter available to reporters.