USA WANT DUTCH TO BE TOUGHER ON XTC TRADE

The director of the US bureau of Drugs policy John Walters, stated that the Dutch fight against the trade of synthetic drugs is not tough enough. He pleas for 'wire tapes' and the use of infiltrators. According to Walters the Dutch XTC labs yearly transport tons of synthetic drugs to the United States. Lately the United Nations published a report about synthetic drugs and the conclusion is that production, trafficking and use only increased. Worldwide it is estimated that 34 million people use XTC and around 8 million use amphetamines. The Netherlands is seen as one of the largest producers of synthetic drugs.

Walters does not value the successful Dutch results very highly. The Dutch figures show that they catch more and more pills and round up loads of laboratories. In 2002 43 labs were discovered and 6 million pills were confiscated. Also a lot of raw materials were confiscated. Enough to make around 127 million pills. According to Walters the demand and the trade simply grow a lot faster than the combat and the Dutch government does not do enough to fight it. The use of techniques like eavesdropping with wire taps and of infiltrators, will cause a dramatic change.

The Dutch Minister says that there is enough political will to fight the Dutch production of XTC. He has a problem with the proposal of Walters to use taps and infiltrators. In the nineties of the last century the Dutch decided to stop using the kinds of techniques, because they were misused for fraudulent and criminal purposes. Because it was usually impossible to control the use of these techniques and since it often was not lawful, in the end the evidence became useless in the Dutch court. It means that laws have to be changed before the Dutch can send out infiltrators with wire tapes again. more features

September 29 , 2003