Bill Clinton: “Well, I'm certainly willing to say that our best efforts have not turned it around, and I'm very concerned about it. I…”

“Well, I'm certainly willing to say that our best efforts have not turned it around, and I'm very concerned about it. I talked about this in the State of the Union Address. I've been telling the American people for over a year that--myself, before we had a study--I've been making full disclosure here that we had a crime rate going down but a youth crime rate going up; we had a drug use rate going down but a youth drug use going up. Now, finally, the youth crime rate has started to go down. So about the only trend in all of America, whether it's economic or social, that's going in the wrong direction is this youth drug use. And it began, apparently, with a change in attitudes about 1990. The patterns, interestingly enough, are the same in Canada and in several European countries where both drug and tobacco use are going up among young people who either don't think it's dangerous or think they can take the risks. And I'm very, very concerned about it. Mr. Blitzer. Well, the accusation that Bob Dole and many other Republicans, of course, make is that someone was asleep on the job during these past 3\1/2\, 4 years while there's been this explosion in drug use among young people.”