Clinton Asks Baby Boomers to Warn Kids on Drug Use

Families: In meeting with young people, president says view
that parents are too guiltridden to discuss the issue is 'hooey.'

By MARLENE CIMONS, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTONPresident 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."