SENATE HOPEFUL ADMITS USING COCAINE IN '70S

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Lincoln Chafee, who is seeking to succeed his
father as senator from Rhode Island, has admitted to trying cocaine while a
college student in the 1970s. A second hopeful said he tried marijuana.

"I think it's important to put it into perspective -- I tried it," Chafee,
46, told WJAR-TV in an interview that aired Sunday. "It's not something I'm
proud of."

Chafee, the mayor of Warwick, said he decided to speak publicly about his
cocaine use following "dogged" questioning about whether Republican
presidential candidate George W. Bush used drugs.

An interviewer posed the question to Chafee during the Friday taping of a
news show.

"I had three choices -- lie, which was not an option, or evade it and
receive the consequences of that, or be honest. And I chose to be honest,"
Chafee said Sunday.

Chafee said he tried cocaine while a student at Brown University. He
graduated in 1975.

Chafee is the sole Republican running for the Senate seat. The race has
also attracted Rep. Robert Weygand, D-R.I., former Democratic Lt. Gov.
Richard Licht, and former state Attorney General Arlene Violet, who may run
as an independent.

The Providence Journal reported Monday that Weygand admitted to
experimenting with marijuana -- but not heroin or cocaine -- while at the
University of Rhode Island. Licht and Violet both said they had never used
illegal drugs.

Chafee acknowledged that his admission could hurt his candidacy if voters
hold him to the wholesome image of his father, John Chafee, a former Boy
Scout and World War II hero.

"It's not something positive for my record," he said.

Said Violet: "I think his personal involvement with cocaine is going to be
between him and the voters."

The elder Chaffee announced earlier this year that he would not seek a
fifth term as senator in 2000. Chafee, 76, was secretary of the Navy and a
three-term Rhode Island governor before he became a senator.