Death Penalty for Some Drug Dealers Reasonable, Bush Says

Vice President George Bush said he probably would support the death penalty for convicted large-scale drug dealers because of the threat of drug abuse to the United States.

“I don’t think the death penalty is unreasonable,” Bush told the Boston Herald during a weekend interview on his fishing boat in Saco Bay, south of Portland, Me.

Bush, who is wrapping up a vacation at his family’s second home in Kennebunkport, called drugs a “great threat to our society. Finding a way to control them is something that must be done.”

President Disagrees

But President Reagan, who is vacationing at his ranch near Santa Barbara, disagreed with Bush’s call for the death penalty for certain drug dealers, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Monday.

Although Reagan believes capital punishment would be appropriate in certain cases of drug dealing, Speakes said: “It’s not something we intend to pursue, mainly because there are a lot of people who hold very strong feelings about the death penalty per se.

“And we think . . . (the) drug issue is too important, and we want to approach it with a consensus of the American people so that it does not get embroiled in a side issue such as the death penalty.”

Drug Policy Chief

Bush is chief of the Reagan Administration’s drug enforcement policy and has visited Central and South America in efforts to persuade officials there to help curtail the flow of illegal drugs.

Bush’s remarks came after U.S. Atty. William Weld said in Boston that he will begin seeking the death penalty for drug kingpins this month when he becomes head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.