White House official speaks out against pot proposal

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Five days before voters will decide whether to loosen restrictions on marijuana use, a White House official urged Columbia residents "not to fall for the lie" that marijuana is an innocent drug.

At a news conference Thursday, Scott Burns, director of state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, repeatedly said he was not in Columbia to tell people how to vote, but attacked many of the primary arguments presented by those who support the proposal.

Voters will decide at an election Tuesday whether penalties on marijuana should be reduced and if medicinal marijuana use should be allowed.

Proponents of the Columbia measure, who were not allowed to attend the news conference, which was hosted by Phoenix Programs rehabilitation center, 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.

Financial aid concern

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, however, said students caught with marijuana still could lose their aid even 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, Burns said.