Deukmejian, Bush Focus on Drug Issue in School Visit

It was back to school day Thursday for George Deukmejian and George Bush.

The vice president of the United States and the governor of California, on a campaign swing through the San Francisco Bay Area, joined 450 elementary school students for an anti-drug program conducted by a Berkeley police officer.

“I wanted to show the vice president on his visit here to California what we are trying to do to help a lot of the young people in the state realize that there is danger involved if you use drugs,” Deukmejian told the children--and a dozen television cameras filming the visit.”

Deukmejian, who is up for reelection Nov. 4, and Bush, who was in California to help his fellow Republicans win office, are among a number of politicians of both parties who have seized upon the drug issue during the campaign season.

Radical Politics

In Berkeley, a city that was once a center of radical politics and the drug culture, the two GOP leaders faced some tough questions from the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders who attend Columbus Intermediate School.

“Have you ever had drugs?” one student asked the vice president.

“I never took drugs in the sense of recreational drugs,” Bush responded. “I’ve had them like in a hospital. . . . That was a good lesson for me, because you felt different. You felt kind of good, although it brought home that if you did it again and again, you might get addicted.”

Another student asked the governor, “What do you do if your parents are taking drugs?”

“I would say first of all, that you do the best you can in telling your parents that you don’t like what they’re doing,” Deukmejian said. “On the other hand, if it were to continue, and it was really causing great problems for the children in the family, there have been some children who have gone either to their school teachers or to law enforcement authorities and asked for help, and I think that’s a good idea to ask for help from professional people.”

Two Cases

Deukmejian was referring to two cases this summer in which 13-year-old and 11-year-old Southern California girls reported their parents’ alleged drug use to authorities.

Deukmejian was asked by another youngster, “Do you have to take the drug test?”

‘Wouldn’t Show Anything’

“There’s no law that requires me to take the drug test, although I wouldn’t mind taking it because I know it wouldn’t show anything,” he replied. “I don’t abuse drugs whatsoever.”

Deukmejian noted that he has called for the testing of all state employees who have “sensitive” jobs that could affect the health and safety of the public.

While the children gave Deukmejian and Bush a warm welcome, Anna DeLeon, a member of the Berkeley school board, angrily protested the political nature of the visit by unfurling a small banner in the back of the school auditorium.

“I think it’s terrible to use children this way,” she told reporters.

And outside the school, more than 100 protesters demonstrated against drug testing and U.S. foreign policy in Central America. “My Body, My Drugs, My Business,” read a placard carried by one demonstrator.