From: clarinews@clarinet.com
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.state,clari.news.election,clari.news.politics,biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Brown denies allegations of cocaine, marijuana parties
Keywords: state government, government, election, politics,
	political parties
Date: 10 Apr 92 12:31:04 GMT
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ACategory: usa
Slugword: brown
Priority: regular
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	Democratic presidential candidate Edmund ``Jerry'' Brown denied a
nationally broadcast report that he threw numerous parties where large
quantities of marijuana and cocaine were used at his private home while
he was governor of California.
	Brown, speaking from the campaign trail, said the allegations are
absolutely false.
	``As far as I know it's absolutely false. There's nothing to it,''
Brown said. He complained that the allegations were not specific. ``They
won't tell me when or who or whatever.''
	ABC News reported that four California State Police officers who
worked on Brown's security detail described drug use at Brown's Los
Angeles home, where he frequently stayed while serving as governor from
1975-82.
	Two of the former Brown security officers appeared on camera
disguised to conceal their identities while telling the interviewer
about the alleged drug parties. They did not say Brown ever used any
illegal drugs.
	``Sometimes we were within just a few feet of the open windows.
Myself and other officers saw what appeared to be coke parties -- using
cocaine,'' one officer said.
	``After the parties were over and we cleared the residence, we could
smell the odor of drugs, marijuana, and found traces of white powder
substances, which we later identified as cocaine,'' he said, adding that
the powder was tested five or six times and ``it always showed cocaine.''
	``Throughout the house were ash trays with seeds or leftovers of
marijuana, remains of marijuana. I would say in one form or another
there was evidence of it in every room except the bathroom,'' another
officer said.
	A former Brown chief of staff, Republican state Assemblyman B.T.
Collins, said in Sacramento, Calif., the allegations of drug use at
Brown's house are totally untrue.
	``He never had parties,'' Collins told United Press International. 
``I am not his supporter ... but fair is fair and this is wrong. If
anybody, friend or foe, knew Jerry Brown, you knew he was the kind of
person you would not want to have a party with. All he wanted to do was
talk about the future of the ozone hole.''
	Collins said Brown opposed alcohol and drug use.
	``He felt that they made a person less a person intellectually. Why
would you not (want to) be in total control of your mental facilities?''
	``When I stayed at his house I used to complain, 'There's no booze
here, governor,''' Collins said.
	Collins said he didn't believe the former state police officers'
story and suspects it was concocted as ``a very smart move'' by the
campaign of Democratic front-runner, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.
	``It's every public figure's nightmare,'' Collins said. ``The totally
unfounded, unsubstantiated nightmare. And they have two guys saying the
same thing.''
	The officers told ABC they told their superiors about the alleged
drug use, but did nothing else for fear they would be fired.
	``Our primary concern was the protection of the governor, not to
arrest him,'' one officer said.
	But Brown, appearing on the NBC ``Today'' program Friday morning,
said, ``I'm not governor. I can't affect their jobs. In addition,
California has a very strong civil service system. As my former chief of
staff said, anyone who reported drug use, they would have been promoted.
''
	ABC said an officer in charge of Brown's security detail for three
years said no drug use at the Laurel Canyon house was ever reported to
him.
	The report did not allege any drug parties in Sacramento, where Brown
eschewed the governor's mansion, living in a spartan apartment near the
Capitol while he was governor and slept on a mattress on the floor.
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