Doonesbury Strips on Quayle Provoke Uproar : Commentary: Garry Trudeau claims DEA suppressed data about alleged drug use by vice president.

Doonesbury, the comic strip by Garry Trudeau, has provoked an uproar with an upcoming series of strips suggesting that federal drug officials suppressed information about alleged drug use by Vice President Dan Quayle.

The strips, which are scheduled to run for two weeks starting Nov. 11, allege that the Drug Enforcement Administration has a file on Quayle and that the file’s existence was covered up during the 1988 election. Trudeau does not contend that charges that Quayle purchased cocaine when he was a U.S. senator were substantiated, only that the DEA looked into them.

Many newspapers around the country said they are trying to investigate the charges before deciding whether to run the strips.

“First of all, we’re trying to find out whatever we can about the allegations themselves,” said William German, executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Whatever decision we make will be based on what we find. But, if we are going to be saying these things about the vice president, it is a better story than a comic strip.”

David Beckwith, Quayle’s spokesman, said he knew of no investigation or DEA file concerning Quayle. Beckwith added that the strip would “run exactly where it belongs--on the comics page.”

“The vice president has never been questioned by any law enforcement authority on anything related to any drug charges,” Beckwith said. Allegations of past drug use by Quayle had been “thoroughly checked out” by a number of news organizations and “found to be bogus,” he said.

Lee Salem, editorial director of Universal Press Syndicate in Kansas City, which distributes Doonesbury to nearly 1,400 publications, said that more than a dozen editors had called to ask about Trudeau’s sources for the strips. Salem said he told editors that Trudeau had used Washington news reports, including the allegation of a convicted felon who said he had sold marijuana to Quayle.

At least two newspapers so far reportedly are refusing to run the column--the Providence Journal in Rhode Island and the Daily Sentinel of Rome, N.Y.

“I’m one of the staunchest and earliest admirers of Garry Trudeau,” said George B. Waters, president and publisher of the Daily Sentinel. “There are times when he goes over the edge in taste and possible libel,” Waters said of Trudeau. “I don’t want to carry out his personal vendettas.”

The Times is among those papers still considering whether to run the columns.

“I just saw the strips today and we are in the process now of evaluating them,” Times Associate Editor Narda Zacchino said.