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President Clinton on Wednesday urged baby boomers who,
like him, tried drugs when they were younger to shed their
guilt about it and start talking to their children about
the perils of drug use. "I think this business about how
baby boomers all feel too guiltridden to talk to their
children is the biggest load of hooey I ever heard," he
told a group of young people gathered in the East Room of
the White House for a "town meeting" on drugs. "They have a
bigger responsibility to talk to their children."

Clinton said he initiated conversations about drugs with
his now17yearold daughter Chelsea when she was 6 or 7.

He said he explained to her that he experimented with
marijuana nearly 30 years ago but "if I had known then what
I know now, . . . I would not have done it. . . . It hasn't
bothered me to tell her that she shouldn't make the same
mistakes I did."

Recent studies have shown that illicit drug use, fueled
by sharp increases in marijuana smoking, is rising among
teenagers and that many of today's parents are ambivalent
about warning their children against it because of their
own previous use.

Marijuana use has not yet approached the peak levels of
the 1970s. However, a study released this winter showed
that marijuana smoking has tripled among eighthgraders
since 1991, more than doubled among 10thgraders since 1992
and increased by nearly twothirds among high school
seniors since 1992.

These statistics, and recent actions by voters in
California and Arizona approving medicinal use of
marijuana, have fueled the recent national debate about
drug use among young people.

The "town meeting" was broadcast by ABC Radio and hosted
by ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings. It was Clinton's
latest public attempt to demonstrate his concern about
teenage drug use.

Clinton and Jennings were joined by about a dozen
youngsters from across the country, including Alfredo
"Fred" Aranda, 18, of Los Angeles, a former drug user who
underwent counseling after he was arrested on a
drugrelated charge. He said that his parents were also
drug users, and he described what it was like growing up in
the household.

"For me, it was an every day thing . . ," he said. "I
saw it around the house. In ways, you know, I kind of
accepted it. I felt like there was nothing wrong with it
because my dad, he wouldn't really hide it. . . . It's
like, I was growing up in the wrong environment. I got like
I had to accept it." The teenager said some of his friends
assume that passage of California's medical marijuana
initiative has led to tacit acceptance by authorities of
pot use. These youths believe that "I'm not going to go to
jail for using," he said. "Some kids, all the way down to
13, they think it's, like, cool to use drugs."

Republicans and conservative groups repeatedly have
criticized the administration for failing to stem growing
drug use among youths. In the aftermath of the two
initiatives on medicinal use, administration officials
announced their intention to crack down on any doctors who
prescribe marijuana, and Clinton repeatedly has condemned
the use of illicit drugs.

In a memorable moment during the 1992 presidential
campaign, Clinton admitted that he had tried marijuana but
said that he had not inhaled.

He said Wednesday that he told his daughter he had tried
marijuana a couple of times "when I was 22 years old in
England while attending Oxford University and I thought
there were no consequences."

He added: "We began when she was very, very young,
basically saying that this is wrong, this can cause you
great damage, it can wreck your life, it can steal things
from you. It costs money, it costs you your ability to
think, it costs your selfcontrol, it costs you your
freedom in the end." Instead of being embarrassed about
earlier drug use, Clinton said parents should approach the
issue with their children as they would with other
behaviors or actions they regret.

"I think all parents hope their children won't make the
same mistakes they did in many areas of life, not just
this," he said. "And so that's part of what being a parent
is all about."