Bourne Denies Seeing White House Drug Use

Dr. Peter Bourne, President Carter's former chief adviser on drug abuse who resigned last July amid a controversy over a drug prescription he had written, said in an interview this week that he has never seen anyone from the White House using drugs.

Bourne told the Associated Press that only once while he held his White House job had he seen marijuana and cocaine being used freely. Bourne said that incident occurred at a party given last year for the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Reporters who were at that party said they had seen Bourne using cocaine there, but Bourne this week denied the charge.

He said he had never used drugs while holding his White House job. But he reaffirmed his earlier admission that he had previously used marijuana and had tried cocaine once "several years ago."

Bourne said that during his tenure in the White House he had written "not more than a dozen" prescriptions for fellow staff members, including presidential aide Hamilton Jordan.

He added that only once had he used a fictitious name for a prescription; that time was the incident that led to Bourne's resignation.

Bourne said he plans to do some speaking around the country about the dangers of drug abuse.

Bourne has said he supports President Carter's policy of decriminalizing, but not legalizing, the use of marijuana.

"But if it comes to a question of are you for or against marijuana, one must be against," he said. "Not using drugs is clearly vastly better than using drugs."