BUSH TAKES WHITE HOUSE DRUG TEST

WASHINGTON--President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were first
in line when 650 new White House employees took a required drug test
last January.

"They were tested as a condition of employment here," White House
press secretary Ari Fleischer said Thursday. He discussed internal
White House drug policies on the same day Bush named a new director
to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Since that first round of testing, Fleischer said 127 White House
staffers have been randomly tested. "There are no problems that have
been brought to anybody's attention," he said.

Although Bush said in a Rose Garden ceremony that he believes in "a
moral refusal to accept" illegal drugs, Fleischer described a White
House policy that falls short of zero tolerance.

Any White House aide who tests positive for drugs would "have to take
action and it will be decided on a case-by-case basis," Fleischer
said.

Officials would consider what kind of drug was involved and whether
it was "some type of casual usage or more serious problem," before
deciding on a consequence ranging from a letter of reprimand to
firing, Fleischer said.