Name Details of Drug Use, if Any

Michael R. Bloomberg Asked during the 2001 mayoral campaign by New York magazine if he had ever used marijuana, said: ”You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.” Later said he regretted those remarks.

George W. Bush Acknowledged in 1994 run for governor of Texas that he had abused alcohol, and decided to quit drinking when he turned 40. As candidate for president in 2000, refused to answer directly whether he had used marijuana, cocaine or other illegal drugs, but said that he could have passed a 15-year F.B.I. background check when his father became president — apparently ruling out drug use since 1974. As president, appeared to acknowledge past marijuana use in conversations with a family friend, Doug Wead. Aides have denied specific allegations of other drug use in a 2004 biography by Kitty Kelley.

Bill Clinton As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in the late 1960s, tried marijuana. “I’ve never broken a state law,” he said. “But when I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale it, and never tried it again.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton When running for Senate in 2000, said she had never used marijuana or cocaine.

Andrew M. Cuomo Seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002, said, “I have tried marijuana in my youth,” but refused to say whether he had enjoyed it.

Rudolph W. Giuliani As mayor, expounded from a City Hall lectern about why he had not tried marijuana or cocaine. Later said he regretted even answering reporters’ questions about personal drug use, saying, “It’s none of their business.”

Al Gore As Democratic senator from Tennessee, disclosed in 1987, when the Supreme Court appointment of Douglas H. Ginsburg was scuttled over the judge’s past marijuana use, that he had used marijuana in his youth.

John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean All admitted, in succession at a Democratic presidential debate in 2003, to having used marijuana in the past. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman said they had not.

John McCain As candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1999, was asked if he had ever tried marijuana and replied: ”No. Also remember my age: 63.” (Mr. McCain is now 71.) Explained at the time that drug use did not escalate among troops in Vietnam until after he had been taken prisoner.

Barack Obama In his 1995 memoir, wrote that he indulged in marijuana, alcohol and sometimes cocaine as a high school student in Hawaii. But his account significantly differed from the recollections of others who did not recall his drug use.

George E. Pataki In his autobiography, the Republican governor wrote that he experimented with marijuana when a law school friend at Columbia University cooked it into a pot of baked beans.

Charles E. Schumer Said that as a college student at Harvard (where he graduated in 1971), he never used marijuana. “It was illegal,” the Democratic senator explained.