Gingrich Calls For Pro Athletes Using Drugs To Name Suppliers

House Speaker Newt Gingrich urged the nation’s professional sports leagues Thursday to act swiftly against athletes who test positive for illegal drugs and bar them from competing until they identify their suppliers.

“Why shouldn’t they have an obligation to turn someone in? They know someone committing a felony,” Gingrich said at a news conference to release the results of a new poll on drugs.

The speaker said high-salaried athletes have a special responsibility to help in the fight against drugs because they are role models.

The leagues should suspend athletes for a year and take away their salaries, in addition to calling for their cooperation, Gingrich said.

Gingrich said someone mentioned the idea to him recently. He said he plans to ask the House to adopt a non-binding resolution endorsing it.

Scott Ehlers, a spokesman for the non-partisan Drug Policy Foundation here, said Gingrich was advocating measures more severe than those in law. “Why should they be treated any differently from regular citizens?” Ehlers said. “He’s essentially trying to turn the leagues into police organizations.”

The foundation favors alternatives to current drug laws and supports a greater emphasis on the public health aspect of drug use.

Gingrich appeared on Capitol Hill with Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, to discuss the group’s recent poll, which found that four-fifths of Americans were opposed to legalization of cocaine and heroin and that more than one-third blamed the drug problem for the breakdown of the family.

Bauer called for a “national effort above partisanship to do something about the crisis.”

But Gingrich adopted a bitingly partisan tone in criticizing the Clinton administration for an inadequate approach to fighting drugs. He has traded barbs in recent weeks with retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who heads the White House drug policy office.