PRESS CONFERENCE BY NETHERLANDS

26 June 1996

Press Briefing

19960626 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the State Secretary for the Interior of the Netherlands, J. Kohnstamm, said his Government's policy to confront the drug problem was proving successful.

Mr. Kohnstamm, who is leading the Dutch delegation to the current Economic and Social Council session's high-level segment devoted to international cooperation on narcotic questions, said the Dutch Government's strategy was to separate the markets of soft and hard drugs. There was enough evidence that the strategy was succeeding. In the past 10 years the average age of drug addicts had gone up to 35 or 36 years, and there was nearly no younger addicts. The amount of hard drug addicts, 0.1 to 0.2 per cent, was relatively low compared with figures in other countries.

He also said that fewer people were dying from drug abuse and that the rate of HIV infection was low. There was therefore no good reason for the Government to change its policy, he added.

As far as the Council's high-level segment was concerned, Mr. Kohnstamm said he had been struck by the emphasis being laid on demand reduction as an important part of the approach to dealing with the drug problem. That had not been the case three or four years ago at such meetings. Speakers were saying that the fight against drug abuse would fail if the repressive approach or law enforcement remained the only tool. There was a general consensus on a parallel strategy of law enforcement and demand reduction.

He drew attention to the fact that a meeting of the International Council on Alcohol Addiction, to be held in the Netherlands next week, would address the question of demand reduction and look for innovative ways of achieving it.

Responding to questions, he said the drug problem was more and more becoming an international one and even democracies were at risk. Enormous amounts of money were being moved around by the drug traffic. The devastating result on drug users were being seen in several countries and cities. International approaches were needed to solve the problem.

Netherlands Briefing - 2 - 26 June 1996

In answer to further questions, he said that two views on how to deal with the problem were emerging from the Council meeting: a dual approach, combining law enforcement with demand reduction, and international action to deal with the problem of synthetic or so-called man-made drugs.

The Netherlands had chosen the pragmatic approach to the drug problem while other countries favoured the ideological one, he said. The fact that his country, on one hand, did not socially accept the use of drugs, while at the same time stayed in touch with addicts to provide care, was a difficult part of the Government's strategy. However, he stressed, the Government did not want addicts to go underground.

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