U.S. drug czar John Walters traveled to Colorado this week to attack a ballot question on marijuana legalization, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported Oct. 12.

Walters said legalization would increase use of marijuana, which he called a "disease."

"You already have a shocking number of young people reporting using marijuana," said Walters, who said that passing the measure would benefit organized crime. "The same mafias that kill people on the border and slaughter judges and prosecutors in Mexico make the bulk of their money from marijuana," he said.

Walters, who has been criticized for interjecting his office into state-level policy discussions, cast the Colorado ballot question as the work of outsiders. "This is an attempt to use Colorado. Let's be clear," Walters said. "It's important that people recognize it's not your fellow citizens funding this."

"This is a federal agent, our federal government coming to our state and lying to people about a state initiative," replied Mason Tvert, director of the campaign to support marijuana legalization.