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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MeDroogies who wrote (512)	7/16/1998 8:40:00 AM
From: Turboe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13060

Netherlands: Dutch Erupt At Speech By American Envoy Newshawk: tjeffoc@sirius.com (Tom O'Connell) Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com Website: sfgate.com DUTCH ERUPT AT SPEECH BY AMERICAN ENVOY U.S. drug czar wrongly cited higher crime rate in Holland The Netherlands reacted angrily yesterday to critical remarks by U.S. drug czar General Barry McCaffrey in which he blasted liberal Dutch narcotics policies and incorrectly claimed that the Netherlands has much higher rates of murder and other crime than 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," McCaffrey said at a press briefing yesterday in Stockholm. He is due to travel to the Netherlands tomorrow, but he may receive a cool reception after his wildly inaccurate remarks. He said the United States had 8.22 murders per 100,000 people in 1995 compared with 17.58 in the Netherlands and that overall per capita crime rates in the United States were 5,278 per 100,000 compared with 7,928 in the Netherlands. "The overall crime rate in Holland is probably 40 percent higher than the United States," said McCaffrey. That's drugs." The Dutch government's Central Planning Bureau poured scorn on McCaffrey's figures. Official data put the Dutch murder rate at 1.8 per 100,000 people in 1996, up from 1.5 at the start of the decade. The Dutch say the U.S. rate is 9.3 per 100,000. "The figure (McCaffrey is using) is not right. He is adding in attempted murders," a planning bureau spokesman said. The Netherlands, a front-runner in drug tolerance, recently started giving free heroin to hard-core addicts through a health ministry project. Dutch law permits possession of up to five grams of light drugs for personal consumption. Sale and consumption of hard drugs are not legally permitted, but authorities have developed a pragmatic approach, putting the emphasis on stopping drug-trafficking and helping addicts, who are treated as medical cases and not as criminals. A spokesman for McCaffrey, Robert Housman, said the drug czar would warn Dutch authorities not to "put American children ... at risk" by allowing its liberal drugs policies to be promoted abroad. But three hours later, Housman telephoned news agencies to say the statement "no longer stands" because it did not reflect McCaffrey's views.