USTIN, Texas - George W. Bush tried yesterday to dismiss questions about whether he ever used illegal drugs as ''ridiculous and absurd rumors'' but later elaborated that he had not used them in the past seven years.
Bush changed his response after The Dallas Morning News questioned him about the requirement that federal employees answer questions about drug use to get high-level security clearances.
''As I understand it, the current form asks the question, `Did somebody use drugs within the last seven years?' and I will be glad to answer that question, and the answer is `No,''' the News, in a story for today's paper, quoted Bush as saying in New Orleans.
Bush, who is 53, would not elaborate beyond the seven-year time frame.
He said that if elected, he would make no change in the federal policy that requires high-level presidential appointees to answer questions about drug use in the standard FBI background check.
''It's a legitimate question to ask to make sure there are no drug users on the White House staff,'' Bush told the newspaper. But, he added, ''The president should recognize that some people may have made mistakes when they were younger, and the question the president must ask is did they learn from those mistakes and will they not repeat them again.''
Since his first campaign for Texas governor in 1994, Bush has declined to answer some questions about his past.
