FEDERAL OFFICIAL ISSUES POT WARNING

Envoy Insists He's Not Saying How To Vote.

An official with the White House's drug policy office today urged
Columbians "not to fall for the lie" that marijuana is an innocent drug.

While noting repeatedly that he was not in Columbia to tell people how to
vote, Scott Burns in a news conference attacked many of the primary
arguments presented by those who support Proposition 1. The proposed local
ordinance on Tuesday's ballot would reduce penalties for small amounts of
the drug and give seriously ill citizens "the right" to use it for
medicinal use with a physician's recommendation.

Proponents have said that students convicted of possessing 35 grams or less
of marijuana under the proposition would not lose their federal financial
aid for education.

Burns, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
reiterated statements made by officials with his office that students could
still lose their aid if the proposition is passed. Acknowledging that the
Higher Education Act says students convicted under state and federal laws
will lose their aid, Burns said the spirit of the law is to ensure that "if
you get high all the time, we don't want to give you money."

Changing Columbia's law to make possession of small amounts of marijuana a
municipal violation was a way to "trick" the system, the official said.

Phoenix Programs rehabilitation center, 607 S. Fifth St., hosted the news
conference also attended by First Ward Councilwoman Almeta Crayton and Paul
Robinson, a physician in adolescent medicine. It was followed by a luncheon
at a south Columbia banquet center, where the topic was to be "the dangers
of marijuana."

Crayton, who voted against the measure when it came before the Columbia
City Council in January, said she worried that passage of the proposition
would lead to increased usage.

"It's not the smoking of marijuana, it's what comes afterward," she said.
"It's a serious thing," she said of marijuana. "It affects more than just
you because you want to get high."

Proponents of the Columbia measure, who were not allowed to attend the news
conference, said that Burns' visit amounted to campaigning against the measure.

"I think it is ironic that the White House is coming in here and saying
they are here to clear up misinformation. Yet we've had more misinformation
coming in from these guys in the last 48 hours than throughout the whole
campaign," said Mark Jones, a supporter of the initiative.