The deputy director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy admitted Tuesday that marijuana was less deadly than alcohol, but insisted that pot was not a benign drug. 
 
 At a House Oversight Committee hearing, the drug czar’s second-in-command, Michael Botticelli, received a stern questioning from Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) about the harms of marijuana in light of President Barack Obama recent comments on the subject. 
 
 “How many people die from marijuana overdoses every year?” Connolly asked. 
 
 “I don’t know that I know. It is very rare,” Botticelli replied. 
 
 “Very rare. Now just contrast that with prescription drugs, unintentional deaths from prescription drugs, one American dies every 19 minutes,” Connolly said. “Nothing comparable to marijuana. Is that correct?” 
 
 Botticelli admitted that was true. 
 
 “Alcohol — hundreds of thousands of people die every year from alcohol related deaths: automobile [accidents], liver disease, esophageal cancer, blood poisoning,” Connolly continued. “Is that incorrect?” 
 
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 But Botticelli refused to answer. Guessing where the line of questioning was headed, he said the “totality of harm” associated with marijuana indicated it was a dangerous drug, even though it was not associated with deaths. 
 
 “I guess I’m sticking with the president — the head of your administration — who is making a different point,” Connolly fired back. “He is making a point that is empirically true. That isn’t a normative statement, that marijuana is good or bad, but he was contrasting it with alcohol and empirically he is correct, is he not?” 
 
 Botticelli again tried to dodge the question, but Connolly interrupted him and told him to answer. 
 
 “Is it not a scientific fact that there is nothing comparable with marijuana?” Connolly asked. “And I’m not saying it is good or bad, but when we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly — even prescription drugs — are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn’t that a scientific fact? Or do you dispute that fact?” 
 
 “I don’t dispute that fact,” Botticelli said. 
 
 Watch video below. ||||| A administration official confirmed to Congress on Tuesday that, in spite of President Obama’s recent comments, the administration still opposes state-based efforts to legalize marijuana. 
 
 The administration has been “consistent in its opposition to attempts to legalize marijuana and other drugs,” Michael Botticelli, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the House Oversight Committee’s Government Operations subpanel. 
 
 Congress deemed marijuana a harmful drug under the Controlled Substances Act, he said, and “the Department of Justice’s responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged.” 
 
 The comments follow Mr. Obama’s assertion that it is “important” to let the experiments with legalization in Colorado and Washington state proceed, and that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. 
 
 Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the subpanel, suggested the president’s attitude may contribute to the growing use of marijuana among adolescents. 
 
 “Given the recent statements... the president may, in fact, be a major contributor now to some of the declines we see in the perception of risk” associated with the drug, Mica said. “We’re going from ‘Just say no,’ to ‘I didn’t inhale,’ now it’s 'Just say maybe.’” 
 
 Mica added, “We have the most schizophrenic policy I have ever seen.” 
 
 Botticelli insisted that the administration is attempting to take a “balanced” approach that rejects the so-called “war on drugs” but also rejects legalization efforts. 
 
 “The president has indicated this is a public health challenge and that we need to deal with it as a public health challenge,” he said. 
 
 Nevertheless, the White House and Congress are left in an awkward spot, now that two states have legalized the drug for adults, while 20 states and the District of Columbia have approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes. 
 
 In fact, while the subpanel discussed the matter, the D.C. city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of decriminalizing marijuana possession. The D.C. vote puts Congress on the spot, since the federal legislative body technically has authority over all Washington, D.C., municipal laws. 
 
 Before the new law goes into effect, it must go through a 30-day period during which Congress could pass a resolution “disapproving” of it. Congress could also use the power of the purse as leverage over the District. 
 
 While Congress in recent years has shown more deference to the District’s lawmaking, it has a history of intervening on this issue -- the District approved medical marijuana use in 1998, but it took more than 10 years for Congress to let the city implement the new rules. This year, however, Congress doesn’t seem inclined to get involved. 
 
 A committee aide for Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del. -- whose committee has jurisdiction over D.C. issues -- said Carper has yet to take a position on whether Congress should intervene or not. 
 
 Mica said in a statement to CBS News that the city council vote is “just one more example of the conflict between state and federal law... This is a discussion that is long overdue.” 
 
 While Mica criticized the president’s recent remarks, some Democrats at Tuesday’s hearing defended them. 
 
 “I think the president was exactly right,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said with respect to Mr. Obama’s point that poor kids, along with minorities, are more likely to get “locked up” for smoking pot. 
 
 Cummings said he has “serious questions about the disparate impact of federal government’s enforcement policies on minorities.” 
 
 Those concerns are exacerbated, he said, by the divergent laws at the state level. 
 
 “It’s one thing when you have equal enforcement, but it's another thing when some people are engaged in purchasing marijuana in the streets and other ones in the suites.” he said. “You have many African-American young men... spending long sentences sitting in prison while others law enforcement don’t even touch.”
– The deputy director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy admitted yesterday—only after much prodding—that pot is less dangerous than alcohol and other drugs. Michael Botticelli was questioned at a House Oversight Committee hearing by Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, who first asked how many people die from marijuana overdoses per year, the Raw Story reports. Botticelli said he didn't know, but that it's "very rare." Botticelli then admitted there's no comparison between the volume of marijuana deaths and deaths from prescription drugs. But when Connolly turned the line of questioning to alcohol, Botticelli deflected the question—twice. Connolly finally ordered him to answer: "When we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly—even prescription drugs—are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn’t that a scientific fact? Or do you dispute that fact?" Responded Botticelli, "I don't dispute that fact." Connolly used that to argue that President Obama wasn't being reckless when he said he doesn't think pot is more dangerous than alcohol. Botticelli went on to clarify that despite that comment, the White House opposes states legalizing marijuana, CBS News reports. He added that Obama thinks pot "is a public health challenge and that we need to deal with it as a public health challenge."