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Drug Czar Rebuffed As Dutch Call Bluff

US drugs czar chased out of London college

Squall Download 2, Dec-1999/Jan-2000, pg. 9.

General Barry McCaffrey, the US drugs czar was given a rough ride by protestors on what was supposed to be a safe visit to London in October.

As a hard liner with draconian views on how to deal with the issue of drugs, the ex-US army general’s fire and brimstone method involves demonising all drugs and imposing maximum punishments. On a short tour of London he was chased out of Goldsmith’s College in South London after accompanying Keith Hallawell, the unpopular UK drug czar, on a visit there to launch a website on drug misuse.

According to protesters on site, McCaffrey and his policies are of no use to the UK. “The US drugs policy is the most repressive, least effective and most expensive any where in the world,” Shane Collins told SQUALL. “He was over here trying to push these polices on the UK. We want harm reduction not prohibition and punishment.”

McCaffrey recently incurred the wrath of the Dutch government by issuing a stream of erroneous statements about how liberal drug laws in Holland had led to increases in murder, drug abuse and other crimes. However, much to McCaffrey’s embarrassment the Dutch government responded by juxtaposing social statistics on their Embassy’s website in the US revealing that in every category the United States was worse than the Netherlands. Heroin addiction per 100,000 is 160 in the Netherlands compared to 430 in the US. The Murder rate per 100,000 is 1.8 in the Netherlands compared to 8.22 in the US. The incarceration rate per 100,000 is 73 in the Netherlands compared with 645 in the US. The per capita spending on drug-related law enforcement is $27 in the Netherlands compared with $81 in the US.