DEPUTY DRUG CZAR SEES MEDICAL MARIJUANA AS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

Scott Burns sees no gray where marijuana is concerned.

If Montana legalizes the drug's use in medical situations, then more
children will think marijuana is a legitimate medicine and more children
will use it, the deputy director of the White House's Office of National
Drug Control Policy said at a Missoula press conference Wednesday.

"This is about our kids," said Burns.

Simple as that.

Burns is traveling the state this week, talking to law enforcement officers
about methamphetamine, marijuana and federal drug policy. He talked to
Missoula officers Wednesday morning, appeared briefly before the media,
then headed for Helena.

Burns, a former county prosecutor in Iron County, Utah, was peppered with
questions about medical marijuana, and made his black-and-white feelings
clear amid a debate that many see as a complex shade of gray.

"If you support legal marijuana, you will see an increase in drug use,"
Burns said.

Montanans, of course, will consider an initiative on the November ballot to
legalize medical marijuana. Although most established medical societies
have not endorsed marijuana's use as a pain reliever - a point Burns
repeatedly noted - dozens of studies have found the herb effective in a
variety of medical situations.

But Burns isn't interested in those studies. He sees a stark and dramatic
divide in the fight over medical marijuana, one that cleaves the
participants neatly into pro- and anti-drug camps. Burns claims that
backers of medical marijuana initiatives in U.S. states aren't really
interested in the drug's use as medicine.

"They're not going to stop with medical marijuana," Burns said. "What
they're really interested in is legalizing drugs in the United States."

Burns also talked briefly about methamphetamine, which has become Montana's
most serious drug problems, according to Burns' office. And Missoula Police
Chief Bob Weaver agreed, noting the drug's penchant for spawning other
crimes, including rape, robbery, theft and murder.

Burns called meth use a "terrible scourge."

"It's a serious problem," he said.