MCCAIN TACKLES ADDICTION ISSUE

Presidential Hopeful Discusses Wife's Past Struggle With Painkillers

PHOENIX -- GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy,
are going on national television this weekend to discuss her past addiction
to painkillers.

McCain acknowledges in a Dateline NBC interview with Jane Pauley that he
missed warning signs of his wife's 1989-1992 addiction to prescription
drugs while he was in the midst of his own scandal in Washington.

"I should've understood," McCain said. "I should've detected this earlier
on. Clearly there were signs ... I'd call almost every day, and sometimes
she would sound a little bleary and unconnected, and I would think she's
just tired or sleepy."

McCain, in the interview to be broadcast Sunday, said he still feels
partially responsible. "And maybe I was wrapped up too much in Washington
and my ambitions to pay as much attention as I should have."

While the story of Cindy McCain's addiction has been widely reported in
Arizona, the lawmaker's home state, it has not been the subject of much
national attention.

The McCains decided to address the issue now, rather than wait for his
political opponents to bring it up.

Cindy McCain said she got the prescription pain medicines through a charity
she founded, the American Voluntary Medical Team. A doctor wrote
prescriptions at her direction for medical missions worldwide, and she
sometimes doubled the amount of medication needed, keeping some for her own
use.

In the Pauley interview, Cindy McCain said she hid her addiction from
everyone, including her husband.

She also said she did not deprive people who needed the drugs.

"I took a good portion of them, but I didn't take all of them," she said.
"I have done good things, and the best thing I've done is go into recovery
and stay drug-free."

During the time of Cindy McCain's addiction, her husband and four other
senators were being investigated for interceding with a federal regulator
on behalf of savings and loan figure Charles Keating.

McCain received a mild rebuke from the Senate Ethics Committee for
exercising poor judgment in the Keating affair.