HIS YOUNG AUDIENCE KNEW Bill Clinton was talking about marijuana, but imagine for a moment that the soon-to-be president was referring instead to cigarettes in the 1992 forum he conducted with young people on MTV. Asked whether he would “inhale” given the chance to do it “over again,” Clinton replied, grinning, “Sure, if I could. I tried before.”

Of course, the president would never joke about tobacco in this way; he recognizes the importance of exercising moral leadership on the issue of cigarette use by kids. But when faced with criticism for the alarming increase in drug use among young people, the Clinton administration and its defenders claim the drug problem is beyond even the president’s reach — that it is a function of the Zeitgeist and resists political solutions.