US: PUB LTE: McCaffrey's Inaccurate Statistics

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 12th 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.

Paul Armentano
Publications Director
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Washington