FEW HAVE DRUG-FREE PAST, NOW

Feb. 29 - Even the remote possibility of some of the city's finest
partying back in the evidence room after a particularly successful
drug bust is more than most of us can abide.

So at least in theory, Mayor Wellington Webb's cocaine-free cops
policy seems perfectly reasonable.

Webb announced last week that he will require that the Denver Police
Department reject any and all cadet candidates who have ever used
cocaine in their lives.

It seemed like a fine idea. After all, police officers are expected to
enforce the nation's stringent drug laws with fairness and dedication,
so their personal behavior should be above reproach.

But in the harsh light of day, this part of the mayor's effort to
rebuild public confidence in the PD may prove unworkable.

Face it, over the last 40 years, the drug culture has insinuated
itself into walks of life from the inner city to the Ivy Leagues.

While in the 1950s cocaine use may have been confined to an
underground culture of beatniks and jazz musicians, by the '80s you
could find it almost everywhere, even in the ladies room at your
average Republican fund-raiser.

Nancy Reagan made it sound so easy with her "Just say no" campaign,
but even her kids didn't always listen.

So a huge cross-section of Americans has a cocaine high or two buried
in their deep, dark past. They may not be proud of it, but they can't
deny it.

So whether you're recruiting physicians, teachers or applicants for
the priesthood, most people in human resources have learned not to be
surprised by the answer to that question.

Just two months ago, the Denver Police Department revealed that 67
percent of the candidates for the police academy admitted prior drug
use. Though no breakdown of the drugs used was released, there's a
good chance the recruits' experimentation went beyond the ordinary
high-school pot party.

Zero tolerance seldom is the best policy, and given the need for the
beleaguered department to attract an estimated 100 new recruits per
year over the next few years, the qualification of a cocaine-clean
past makes reaching that goal a daunting task.

Even the FBI, which usually has a waiting list of high-quality
applicants, doesn't have that strict a policy. It disqualifies
candidates who have used cocaine more than five times in their lives
or at any time during the previous 10 years.

And then there's the George W. Bush factor. It raises a whole host of
provocative questions. Among them:

- - Are there positive things in a job candidate's past that outweigh
the significance of cocaine use?

- - Can you require a candidate for a job in the police department to
answer questions about past drug use when a guy who's running for
president can refuse to divulge that information, saying it's
personal, inappropriate and irrelevant?

- - Can it be irrelevant to the highest officer in the land and a
deciding factor for one of the lowest?

Sure, just because so many have done it, doesn't make it right. But it
does make it hard to field a squad of cops ... or presidential candidates.