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.
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.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com
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