Carter aide in drug row

Press, 21 July 1978, Page 5

Carter aide in drug row

NZPA-Reuter Washington Dr Peter Bourne, President Jimmy Carter’s chief adviser on health and drug abuse, has taken an indefinite leave lof absence after acknowledg- . ing he used a fictitious !name on a prescription for a m u c h-abused depressant drug.

Dr Bourne, who is 38. is one of the President’s closest personal friends. The British-bom psychiatrist said he wrote the

I prescription for one of his i aides, but used a false name Ito protect her identity. | The drug involved was [methaqualone, sold under the trade name of Quaalude. It is a powerful sedative sold only on prescription, rigorously controlled by Fedleral laws, and often sought [as a "downer” by drug users.

Dr Bourne said in a stateIment what he did was neither legally nor morally wrong. The incident became known after the police arrested a woman at a pharmacy in Virginia. The arrested woman was Toby Mary Long, a roommate of Ellen Metsky, Dr Bourne’s administrative assistant, for whom the prescription was written after she complained of difficulty In falling asleep. Miss Long was charged in Woodbridge, Virginia, with prescription forgery, and later released on $3OOO bail. Woodbridge police contacted Dr Bourne earlier this month, but the White House and the United States Attorney’s office in Washington reported that no investigation of him was being i made. , The White House said that ’ President Carter had agreed to Dr Bourne’s request that he take a leave of absence from his job, which pays $51,000 a year, until he could clear his name.