Taped Bush conversations hint at marijuana use

PRIVATE conversations with US President George W Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana.

The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to Mr Bush’s father, beginning in 1998, when Mr Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000.

On one of the tapes, Mr Bush criticised then-Vice President Al Gore for admitting marijuana use and explained why he would not do the same.

“I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” he said, according to the New York Times. “You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”