Brits chase away US Drug chief from college appearence The Daily Telegraph (London) 26 October 1999 This Month's News | CSN Home

The controversial American anti-drugs chief, Gen Barry McCaffrey, was hounded by protesters in London yesterday on the first day of a visit to share ideas on fighting illegal drug use in society. Gen McCaffrey, a proponent of hardline solutions to illegal drug use, including jail and a rejection of government-funded services for addicts, was chased out of Goldsmiths College and barracked by demonstrators. Steve Rolles, of the campaign group Transform, said they feared the arrival of the general, who is visiting several European countries to discuss the international fight against illegal drugs, reflected a hardening of the British Government's stance against drug abuse.

He said America had the world's most punitive anti-drug strategy and the worst drugs problem. "The Government has nothing to learn from Barry McCaffrey. The US should not be exporting their drug policy. We should be looking to other far more progressive regimes, such as those in Holland." He expressed concern at Government plans to introduce compulsory drug testing for anyone arrested. Gen McCaffrey, accompanied by his British counterpart, Keith Hellawell, arrived at Goldsmiths to launch an Internet site for professionals in the drugs field. Demonstrators shouted "Go home Nazi scum" and "hypocrite". The demonstrators, who included students from the college in south- east London, claimed that the American government was responsible for flooding inner cities with cheap crack cocaine. The general joked: "You can tell this is a democracy."

On Radio 4's Today, Gen McCaffrey refused to label his policies zero tolerance. "We are neither having a policy of zero tolerance nor a war on drugs. If you wish to use a metaphor, the metaphor of cancer is more useful to shaping our concept."

He said the success of his policy was evident in the 13 per cent reduction in drug use in America last year. "We said the most dangerous drug user in America is a 12-year-old smoking pot and abusing alcohol. We are talking of gateway drugs and, taking the behaviour of a young person aged between nine and 18, we found that where you minimise their exposure to drug taking, statistically they will never have a compulsive drug-taking problem.

"In the past 50 years our own drug experience has been a disaster. It has gone from no drug abuse almost at all in the Sixties to the worst problem in modern times by 1979. In 1979 about 14 per cent of the population used drugs. That's come down to six per cent. Cocaine use is down 70 per cent."

Gen McCaffrey stressed that he believed that education and prevention were the "heart and soul" of the issue. Each country had to develop its own policies to tackle its specific problems. He said: "All of us have different legal and historical contexts. The Dutch are a remarkably civilised, homogenous people in a small area. Their approach might not be appropriate for us. We think the approach we are trying is reflected in dramatically reduced rates of drug abuse." Mr Hellawell said Gen McCaffrey had come to learn, not to preach, and was interested in Britain's 10-year strategy to cut drug use. "It is an international problem that needs an international response."