As the Ambassador says, "the homicide rate in the Netherlands was 1.8 per 100,000 (273 homicides in 1996), which is one-fifth that of the U.S. rate of 8.22 per 100,000." When the Drug Bizarro was claiming that the Dutch murder rate was twice ours he blamed Dutch drugs policy. That would have been simplistic if it had been right. Will no one ask him if DEAland drugs policies are to blame for our much higher murder rate?)

See Drug Bizarro In Sweden Digs Himself In Deeper With Specific Lies About the Dutch;
Says Their Murder Rate Is Twice DEAland’s, But It Is Just 20% Of Ours!
and Go Dutch! for more articles

July 20, 1998
From the Washington Times
letter@twtmail.com
http://www.washtimes.com/

DEFENDING THE NETHERLANDS’ DRUG-CONTROL POLICY

In a July 15 article, "McCaffrey takes his charge to officials in Netherlands," you repeat statements and information about the Netherlands’ drug policy made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. I am disturbed that you made no attempt to verify this material after being confronted with concrete information to the contrary.

He also was told that the incidence of cannabis use in the Netherlands was 4.6 percent of the total population vs. 6 percent in the United States and that the incidence of youth drug use in the Netherlands was almost 50 percent less than in the United States in recent years. In fact, U.S. government data show that in 1995, almost 50 percent of high school seniors had tried an illegal substance, which is much higher than the 30.2 percent attributed to the Netherlands.

We also explained our strong belief that most of the other claims made by Gen. McCaffrey’s office regarding Dutch drug policy were based on an incorrect reading of the data, or simply incorrect data, and our belief that a responsible examination of the facts would put this odd, puzzling controversy to rest.

The Netherlands and the United States have, in some respects, different approaches to domestic drug control policy. However, our goals in reducing the harmful costs to society of illegal drug use are the same, and our two countries have a close, constructive, cooperative relationship in this field.

NORML Also Responds
July 20, 1998

To the Washington Times:

Statistics flaunted by drug czar Barry McCaffrey regarding alleged Dutch homicide and marijuana-usage rates are purposely misleading and inaccurate. While it is unfortunate that a high-ranking U.S. official would stoop to malign dutch drug policies, it is equally disturbing that a major newspaper such as The Washington Times would repeat those inaccuracies.

There were a total of 193 homicides in the Netherlands in 1995, according to the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. This equates to a murder rate of approximately 1.3 per 100,000. This figure is significantly less than America’s 8.3 per 100,000 and nowhere near the 17.58 per 100,000 claimed by Gen. McCaffrey.

According to the 1996 annual survey data compiled by the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future project, 45 percent of American high school seniors admit they have tried marijuana - not 9.1 percent, as Gen. McCaffrey claims. This percentage is far greater than the number of Dutch 12^th graders who admit to having tried marijuana. Gen. McCaffrey’s data misleads the public by comparing the percentage of American teens who use marijuana monthly to the percentage of Dutch teen-agers who have ever tried marijuana.

The Dutch overwhelmingly approve of their current marijuana policies. These policies seek to normalize rather than dramatize marijuana use and eliminate marijuana users from the hard-drug market. If Gen. McCaffrey believes that America’s policy of arresting and jailing more than 12 million marijuana users since 1965 is more effective than the Netherlands’s system, he should find no need to distort the facts and lie to the American people.