U.S. OFFICIAL TAKES DUTCH TO TASK ON ECSTASY

Netherlands Must Do More to Halt Smuggling, He Says

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Faced with widespread smuggling of Ecstasy, a
U.S. official said Friday the Dutch government needs to give
authorities the power to use wiretaps and infiltrate criminal gangs to
crack down on its production.

The Dutch government "isn't serious enough" about closing down
laboratories that ship tons of synthetic drugs to the United States,
John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy said in a telephone interview.

The Netherlands is seen as the largest source of Ecstasy in the United
States and the rest of the world.

Speaking to reporters in Rome on Friday, Walters also took European
countries to task for their lax punishment of marijuana use, calling
their policies "fundamentally irrational."

Some officials in Europe are "very vocal about their view that it's an
appropriate policy to be more free about allowing drug use," Walters
said. This is "a fundamentally irrational health policy and social
policy," he said, insisting that they created a new generation of drug
addicts.

Many European countries follow a policy of therapy instead of
punishment for possession of drugs for personal use, with prison a
last resort for drug users. Dutch authorities have decriminalized
marijuana and concentrated police efforts on hard drugs.

The Dutch insist they have pulled out all the stops against Ecstasy.
But Walters' comments reflect U.S. frustration at the continuing flow
of synthetic drugs from the Netherlands and Dutch reticence to employ
the toughest tactics in the war on drugs.

Last year, the 230-member Synthetic Drugs Unit, set up in 1998,
uncovered 43 production facilities, seized more than 6 million Ecstasy
pills and confiscated enough chemicals to make another 127 million
pills.

But Walters called those figures misleading and was critical of the
Dutch for failing to give police greater authority to move against
drug gangs. The Dutch have been reluctant to enact laws that could be
seen as infringing on civil liberties.

"The reason you have more seizures and arrests is that the business is
growing faster than the containment of that business," Walters said.
"We have had some improved cooperation, especially with Dutch law
enforcement, but there simply have not been adequate steps taken by
the government of the Netherlands to control this," Walters said.

"There is a limited ability to use wiretap and informant information
that makes it harder when you have a criminal conspiracy to enforce
laws," he said.

"If the Dutch government would take this seriously and take the steps
necessary, this would change dramatically."

Martin Witteveen, the lead Dutch prosecutor for synthetic-drug crimes,
said the criticism was not justified. "There has been an enormous
effort and we have seen a lot of results in the past year," he said.