NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Rumors on Barry Not Substatianted

The District of Columbia’s former police chief, Maurice T. Turner, said investigators were unable to substantiate a report six years ago that Mayor Marion Barry was twice hospitalized for cocaine overdoses, the Washington Post reported. The mayor’s spokesman denounced the report of overdoses as ridiculous. WUSA-TV said Monday that Barry was hospitalized for cocaine overdoses at Howard University and D.C. General hospitals in 1983, according to allegations made to police nine months later by Dr. Alyce Gullattee, a Howard University drug abuse specialist. Turner said he turned the allegations over to the department’s Internal Affairs Division, which was then unable to verify them.