Speakes Needles Carter Aides on Drug Tests
WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s spokesman, Larry Speakes, taking a poke at the Carter White House, said today that all the members of the Drug Policy Office took and passed a drug test, “contrary to the previous Administration.â€
Speakes said urinalyses were administered voluntarily to seven staff members of the drug policy office in early February. An aide in the office said the staff members were told beforehand that there would be “random testing.â€
Speakes made the statement about the drug testing as Reagan announced that he will launch a personal anti-drug campaign next week.
“Everybody in the drug abuse office has taken the test and passed, contrary to the previous Administration,†Speakes said.
Under questioning, he said he was referring to the Carter Administration, then asked, “What was the name of that fellow?â€
Dr. Peter Bourne, President Carter’s chief adviser on drugs and alcohol abuse, resigned July 20, 1978, after admitting that he had written a prescription for the sedative methaqualone for a fictitious person.
The drug was for one of his aides, and Bourne said the fictitious name was used to protect her from any publicity.
A friend of the aide was arrested while trying to fill the prescription, triggering newspaper reports that brought about Bourne’s resignation.
Bourne insisted that he had done nothing wrong.
In April, 1979, he took a job with the United Nations to help plan a major U.N. program on the development and conservation of water resources.
Speakes said he and his staff would be willing to take the test.
“I volunteered mine,†he said.
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