cannabisnews.com: Colombia Agrees To Test Herbicide On Coca Colombia Agrees To Test Herbicide On Coca Posted by FoM on July 06, 2000 at 06:59:37 PT By Tim Golden, New York Times News Service Source: Chicago Tribune Under pressure from the United States, Colombia reluctantly has agreed to take the first step toward developing a powerful biological herbicide against the coca and heroin-poppy fields that are spreading almost unchecked across its countryside, Colombian and U.S. officials said Wednesday.For years, U.S. officials have been quietly debating ways to conduct field tests of such an herbicide, developed from a fungus that occurs naturally in many types of coca and other plants. Now, Colombian officials say they are completing a proposal to the United Nations that would include testing for the presence of the fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, in coca, the raw material of cocaine.If the fungus is found in Colombian varieties of coca, Colombian scientists would go on to evaluate its effectiveness, safety and environmental impact as an herbicide."What we want is a program of research--and only research--on the use of biological controls against these crops," the Colombian environment minister, Juan Mayr, said Wednesday.The Colombian government's uneasy support for the project comes as President Clinton is about to sign a bill providing $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia to fight drug traffickers and the insurgents who protect their trade.Some powerful Republicans in Congress told Colombian officials that they were supporting the spending on the expectation that Colombia would agree to explore the use of Fusarium fungus in its coca fields.Within the Clinton administration, officials said, the testing of fungal herbicides was also pushed by the White House drug policy adviser, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and by officials of the U.S. Southern Command, which is overseeing the U.S. overhaul of Colombia's armed forces.Environmentalists and other activists in both countries are raising a din of objections to any field tests of the fungus, arguing that it is virtually a biological weapon--one that might upset Colombia's ecology or endanger farmers, animals and food crops.Last year, similar complaints by environmentalists in Florida prompted state officials there to put aside plans to test a variant of Fusarium for possible use against marijuana fields.Several plant pathologists who have studied the fungus extensively said there is relatively little scientific basis for the assertions about its danger. They acknowledged that a great deal of testing still needs to be done, but they added that the most significant unanswered questions might have less to do with the safety of the fungus than with its effectiveness and cost."If they're looking at local strains of the fungus, then I can't see something scientifically dangerous about it," said Jonathan Gressel, a professor of plant sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "What you're doing is taking a disease that is already present and putting on more of it.""But they'll be lucky if it works," Gressel added. "Because typically this inundative strategy isn't good enough in commercial agriculture, and I'm sure the narcos have been planning ahead. They'll probably go to fungicides or breed their coca to be resistant to the fungus. It's relatively easy to do."The concerns about Fusarium's proposed use as a mycoherbicide, or fungal herbicide, have been heightened by the shadowy history of research into its impact on drug crops. Indeed, the proposed Colombian study comes after years of often-secret investigation by scientists in the United States and the former Soviet Union.Officials said Fusarium, a naturally occurring fungus with variants that can cause wilt in everything from tomatoes and grain to marijuana, was identified as a possible weapon in the drug fight by CIA scientists in the early 1980s. The U.S. Agriculture Department began more extensive research into its use on coca in 1988 and continued the work for nearly a decade.At roughly the same time, Soviet biological weapons scientists at the Institute of Plant Genetics in Uzbekistan were working to develop Fusarium fungus, plant bacteria and other pathogens to destroy opium poppies.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continued to pay for research at the laboratory as part of an effort to keep its impoverished scientists from joining the biological weapons programs of countries such as Iraq and Iran.Some of the same research now continues under the auspices of the United Nations Drug Control Program, with has quietly supported the use of biological controls against drug crops since 1976."Whatever happened in the past, the work has to be redone now in an open environment," said Eric Rosenquist, one of the officials who has worked longest on the fungus. "Only then can you debate it on its merits.""I don't see this as some horrible thing that's going to mutate and kill people--that's science fiction," added Rosenquist, a program leader for international programs at the Agriculture Department's Research Service in Beltsville, Md. "But you have to demonstrate that it is going to be effective, and that hasn't been done yet."By Tim Golden, New York Times News ServicePublished: July 06, 2000Copyright: The Chicago TribuneRelated Articles: Fighting Drugs with Choppers and Poison http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6298.shtmlKiller Fungus Could Be Drug War Weaponhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6285.shtmlDrug Control or Bio Warfare? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5616.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on July 07, 2000 at 04:20:31 PT: It's called Theobromine. I always hated milk chocolate. Tasted like sugared plastic to me. Now I know why; not enough theobromine. Here's a link about this very interesting DRUG. And why so many of us like it so much... Theobromine [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by dddd on July 07, 2000 at 02:50:15 PT Cocoa FoM...They recently discovered that chocolate is somehow good for you...mainly "dark" chocolate. We should be careful not to say too much about our chocolate habits.Next thing you know,they'll be force-feeding,and injecting rats with massive quantities of pure Colombian chocolate till they die,,,,and then we'll have get it by perscription.I think I read somewhere,that cocoa actually is considered a "drug".....JAH Shine on You....dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 06, 2000 at 21:20:37 PT I goofed! Hi dddd Yes I made a typo! I tried to fix it but it won't edit the title. They better leave my chocolate alone! I need my chocolate! Chocolate was illegal many years ago because Nuns discovered it was pretty good and were spending too much time in the kitchen making cookies rather then praying. That's as pathetic as Cannabis being illegal!Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by dddd on July 06, 2000 at 20:38:41 PT fresh ,,steaming,,,CRAP! I assume that the ;"cocoa",in the articles title is a typo. This goes beyond the absurd.To experiment with this poisin rain,by showering vast areas of wilderness,where people live,is an absolute OUTRAGE!....dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on July 06, 2000 at 18:13:33 PT: Bio warfare, indeed To paraphrase an old saying, there are fools, damn fools, and imbeciles.The very same scientists in the Soviet Union that were working on Fusarium were working on all kinds of other nasty things specifically tailored for human targets. They are indeed impoverished; and *we* have taught them the value of the capitalist way. Many scientists from the Aral Sea area, where they had a huge CBW compound, have gone missing. And the narcos have plenty of funds. It's already proven through the shootdown (yes, I said shootdown) of the NSA/Army spy plane carrying Captain Jennifer Odom and her crew that the narcos have surface to air missiles. They can afford anything. Plenty of Yanqui dollars to buy whatever they want. More than enough to purchase former Soviet biowar tech. And pay the developers of same. What makes you think the narcos won't innoculate their own people, and then send them here to drop test tube full of death on a street corner in DC?What comes around can indeed go around; we spray them, and they return the favor... with something considerably more lethal than Fusarium.BioWar has always been a fools game, and true to DrugWarrior blindness, they are just the sort of players needed. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by drfist on July 06, 2000 at 18:03:57 PT fungicides will be used/abused clearly the growers will use fungicides to prevent the fusarium disease and these are carcinogenic and contaminate the water, kill fish etc. but U.S. chem co's make big bucks selling it to growers of coffee, cacao, citrus, already. MORE CHEM SALES!!! These growers can afford the stuff the maize and beans people can't they starve or join the rebels, keeping the war cycle going. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Dan Hillman on July 06, 2000 at 12:48:59 PT I think this is where I came in. Hmmm, large scale herbicide bombing in a distant, small equatorial country beset with a decades-long civil war between "democracy" and "communism", eh? No Walter Cronkhite to slow this one down, too, so the whole thing should go off without a hitch...right? [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on July 06, 2000 at 09:57:28 PT Coca, Poppies & Marijuana No matter what they try and do to stop the cultivation of these plants, people will do ANYTHING to grow them. Take a look at the marijuana industry in California. From 1980 to the current, state, local, and federal authorities launched a massive effort called CAMP- Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. All it did was terrorize people with low level helicopter flights, and caused most growers to cultivate INDOORS with high intensity discharge(HID)lighting systems.Now, because most everyone has some extra space at their home, more people have learned how to grow good marijuana in their own house, instead of just a few maverick growers on BLM land! So, cause and effect. Same will be true in South America. Since there is a demand for these drugs, if it gets too difficult to grow the plants outdoors, the farmers will simply build huge growrooms in the jungle with the needed electricity supplied by diesel generators. Any plant can be grown in this manner. Just watch- HYDRO-HEROIN! :-)Dr. Ganj http://www.opiumpoppies.com/ [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: