Pubdate: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. BUSH: NO DRUGS YEARS BEFORE FATHER IN WHITE HOUSE ROANOKE, Va. (Reuters) - Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-running candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said Thursday he had not used illegal drugs during a period that began years before his father became president in January 1989. Dogged on the campaign trail by rumors of past drug use, Bush told reporters in Roanoke, Va., he could have passed the standard FBI background check, which asks about drug use over the past seven years, when his father was in the White House. "Not only could I pass the background check of the standards applied, I could have passed the standards applied on the most stringent case when my dad was president, a 15-year period," he said. Bush, 53, Wednesday refused to answer questions from reporters during campaign stops in Austin, Texas, and New Orleans, where he angrily chastised a reporter for raising the issue. "I've told the people of this country that over two decades ago that I made some mistakes, when I was younger. I've learned from those mistakes," he said during the impromptu press conference Thursday. The son of former U.S. president George Bush, he has blamed rival political camps for planting the rumor of illegal drug use with the press. By his own admission, Bush has acknowledged behaving "young and irresponsibly" as a heavy-drinking bachelor in Houston and Midland, Texas. In a presidential campaign season where personal responsibility has loomed as a key issue, Bush pledged to uphold the "honor and dignity" of the White House. "Should I become the president, my pledge to the American people is that I will uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D