Reagan, Bush Will Submit to Drug Tests on Monday

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan and Vice President George Bush will undergo drug tests Monday to set an example for the rest of the country, the White House said today.

Deputy Press Secretary Albert R. Brashear also announced that 78 members of the White House senior staff have been asked to participate in the “voluntary testing” early next week. Cabinet members will be tested later.

Brashear said the “idea germinated within the President’s staff,” not with Reagan himself. But he added that Reagan and Bush thought it was a good idea.

The announcement came three days after Reagan, in a nationally broadcast speech, unveiled a six-point program aimed at attacking drug abuse in workplaces and in schools.

Brashear said he did not know how many of the 78 senior White House staff members would take the test but a memorandum inviting them to do so was being circulated today.

“We have not taken a poll either formally or informally” as to how many will submit to the tests, he said. Brashear declined to say whether the White House press office will reveal how many of the 78 officials refused to take the test.

“This is not a step set up to find a means to fire someone at the White House,” he replied when asked whether anyone testing positive would lose his or her job.

The urinalyses will be done in the White House medical unit, which is run by the Navy, Brashear said, adding that it will take about 10 to 12 days to get the results.

The spokesman said he did not expect that any one would test positive for drugs but also said any such development likely would be kept confidential.

The volunteers, including Reagan and Bush, will be tested for heroin, marijuana, cocaine, PCP, some kinds of amphetamines and barbiturates, said Dr. Carlton Turner, head of the White House Office on Drug Policy.