EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT NEWS REPORT PRESS RELEASE

DOCUMENT DATE: JUNE 23, 1997

Public hearing combatting drug related crimes

The Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs held a public hearing on
``Combatting Organized Crime and Drug Related Urban Crime.'' During the
hearing three experts gave their evidence as to how the fight against drug
addiction and organized crime was working.

Mr Frerichs, deputy Chief of Police in Frankfurt spoke on the issue of drug
dispensing in order to stabilize the problem. He went on to describe the
reality of this problem, the daily exchange of needles with the result that
HIV is on the rise. To counteract this problem the city of Frankfurt took
note from the Swiss out patient programme, the ``Methadone programme.'' This
programme has been designed to dispense drugs to addicts at ``clean fixing
centres,'' and is considered to have caused a decrease in cases of addiction.
At these clean fixing centres, outpatients can receive hard drugs such as
heroin and cocaine or soft drugs as hash or marijuana. The amounts of drugs
dispensed were 10% of hard drugs and 90% of soft drugs. Mr Frerichs said that
they are not in anyway advocating legalisation but rather, experimenting with
preventative measures. In 1991 to 1992, a major city wide campaign was
launched to combat this problem by expanding police activities and the
distribution of literature. The figures have in

Mr Juergen Roters, Chief of Police, Cologne spoke on the social aspects
concerning this problem. Drug addiction and crime are related to areas where
there is a high rate of unemployment and broken families having to live and
depend on social security benefits. Mr Roters said that drug addicts were not
criminals but rather psychologically ill and in vital need of medical care.
In Cologne the number of drug addicts are between 1200 to 1500. However
towards the end of the 1980's, help centres were constructed to stop the
spread of drugs. Mr Roters indicated that deaths due to drug overdoses had
continuously dropped. However the crime rate cases still remains high and
give cause for concern. His assessment has been that the Methadone programme
could not help the psychologically ill but was able to stabilize the drug
problem from rapid growth.

Mr Lars Nylen, Head of the International Criminal Investigation Department,
Stockholm, spoke on the drug and crime problem. Sweden is trying to develop a
plan to standardize laws against drugs. Another programme was developed to
better understand and detect drug use. It was conducted by the Swedish police
and 10.456 samples of urine and blood were checked and examined. Mr Nylen
explained that the synthetic drugs found at Rave parties have become
dangerously popular and are quickly attracting teenagers. The Nordic
countries are in cooperating to tackle the spread of drugs, especially to
teenagers and to stop the spread of organized drug syndicates.