TYPE OF DRUGS USED BY POLICE HOPEFULS SHOULD BE WEIGHED, UNION OFFICIAL SAYS

Aug. 15, 2000 - Denver Police Department recruits would have to just say no
for a few more years if the Civil Service Commission adopts proposed rules
governing drug use.

The commission is scheduled to look at lengthening the time a recruit can
have used illegal drugs before applying to the department, but a police
union representative said the commission should also consider the type of
drugs that recruits used.

Currently, a job candidate cannot be considered for the Denver Police
Department if he or she has used drugs in the past year. The proposed
change would ban applicants who have used "hard drugs" - substances for
which possession and use is a felony - within five years.

Users of "soft drugs," substances punishable by misdemeanors, would have to
abstain for at least three years to be considered for an officer's job.

L. Michael Henry, the commission's acting executive director, said the
commission will hold a public hearing Aug. 25 before making a final
decision on the new rules.

A panel appointed by Mayor Wellington Webb proposed toughening the drug
rules after it was revealed that police recruit Ellis "Max" Johnson II
admitted to extensive drug use. Johnson eventually dropped his efforts to
join the department.

John Wyckoff, a board member of the Police Protective Association, said the
union will review the rules, but he would like to see candidates
permanently banned for some drug use.

"The person who uses marijuana two or three times in high school is just
experimenting," Wyckoff said. "A person who uses drugs 150 times is more
than experimenting. We don't want people who have saturated their lives
with drugs."

Wyckoff also said people who have used drugs such as heroin and LSD should
never be considered for the department, but that it can't ban all people
who have used drugs.

"We want the best-qualified candidates," he said. "But in this day and age,
it's tough to find people who haven't experimented with drugs." The
commission is also considering a policy change that would require them to
tell rejected applicants the reasons they were not chosen.

Henry said the commission can do that under the present rules, but it wants
to wait until the City Council acts on the mayoral panel's recommendations
that human resources professionals do much of the screening and hiring of
candidates.

"The recommendation would take a charter change and would have to be put
before voters," Henry said.