cannabisnews.com: Drug Warriors Push Eye-Eating Fungus





Drug Warriors Push Eye-Eating Fungus
Posted by CN Staff on June 07, 2006 at 10:03:28 PT
By Jeremy Bigwood
Source: In These Times 
USA -- Why are members of Congress advocating the use of a dangerous crop-killer in Columbia? On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its “ReNu with MoistureLoc” rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. 
It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness—requiring a corneal replacement. That same week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to a bill requiring that the very same fungus be sprayed in “a major drug-producing country,” such as Colombia. The bill’s sponsor was Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and its most vocal supporter was his colleague Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who has been promoting the fungus for almost a decade as key to winning the drug war. The Colombian government has come out against it. And those entities of the U.S. government that have studied the use of Fusarium for more than 30 years don’t recommend it either: The Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar’s office, CIA, DEA, the State Department and the USDA have all concluded that the fungus is unsafe for humans and the environment. “Fusarium species are capable of evolving rapidly. … Mutagenicity is by far the most disturbing factor in attempting to use a Fusarium species as a bioherbicide,” wrote David Struhs, then secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, in a 1999 letter rejecting the use of the fungus against Florida’s outdoor marijuana crop. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to control the spread of Fusarium species.” Mutation of the fungus allows it to attack other “hosts.” The eye-eating Fusarium seems to be a result of such a mutation. After all, the soft-contact lenses that it grows behind are a recent development—having only been commercially available since 1971.The DEA stopped funding Fusarium research in the United States during the early ’90s after it learned that Fusarium infections can be deadly in “immunocompromised” people—not only AIDS patients and those with other illnesses, but also those who are severely malnourished. The University of the Andes in Bogotá has recently reported that 12 percent of Colombian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Spraying this fungus on a vulnerable population could be perceived as using a biological weapon. The CIA has been against the use of Fusarium to kill drug crops since at least 2000. At that time, one official told the Times, “I don’t support using a product on a bunch of Colombian peasants that you wouldn’t use against a bunch of rednecks growing marijuana in Kentucky.” A top scientist from the USDA, which has studied the fungus the longest, said that his agency “cannot support” its use. And the State Department, whose Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement carries out drug crop eradication all over the world, does not support it, either. In 2000, when Congress first passed “Plan Colombia,” the Colombian aid package that ordered the use of the fungus in Colombia, President Clinton waived the part of the bill that dealt with the fungus because he thought its use would be perceived as biological warfare. At the same time, the Andean Community of Nations, an organization comprising Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, banned it within their territories. So, who does support the spraying of the eye-eating fungus over other countries? Only a few adamant drug war jihadists in the House, led by Burton, who are frustrated by the lack of progress in the drug war.The fungus provision has already passed the House, but the Senate version of the bill contains no similar language. Responsibility for a final decision rests on the conference committee where the House and Senate bills will be reconciled—scheduled to happen before this summer.Newshawk: HopeSource: In These Times (US)Author: Jeremy BigwoodPublished: June 6, 2006Copyright: 2006 In These TimesContact: http://tinyurl.com/krgtaWebsite: http://www.inthesetimes.com/Related Articles: Use Fungus To Destroy Drug Fields, Souder Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21877.shtml Call for Biowar on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21825.shtmlMycoherbicide Reduxhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20958.shtml
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Comment #40 posted by whig on June 10, 2006 at 20:17:41 PT
Dugg
This article has been dugg. Reading the comments are interesting because the opinion is lopsidedly in our favor and it is not a group of people who are particularly involved in our issue at all.http://tinyurl.com/k7oml
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Comment #39 posted by Hope on June 08, 2006 at 07:49:34 PT
Thanks, Whig.
That's kinda of like I do when I see Souder's picture on the screen!
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Comment #38 posted by whig on June 07, 2006 at 23:15:53 PT
OT: Had to share this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXTDovB9K8&eurl=
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Comment #37 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 18:36:31 PT
Ann Coulter
I like watching Joe Scarborough because he seems like a fair person. They talked about Ann Coulter. I don't remember the name but this man was a republican strategist or something like that. He defended what she said. I feel very sorry for people who lose someone and become active in politics for a special reason. What about the children is their excuse to us but heaven forbid someone is motivated by a son lost in war or a husband killed on 9/11.
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Comment #36 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:25:44 PT
Mark Souder says,
Not on my watch!
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Comment #35 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:24:02 PT
Mr Souder looks back over his shoulder as
the doors of the fuaarium sphere vacuum seal behind him.He laughs and tosses out "It will probably be good for us!"
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Comment #34 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:20:33 PT
Mark Souder enters fusarium sphere...
He is so confident, he is taking his grandchildren in with him. They are twin two year old girls...in pink dresses.
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Comment #33 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:05:10 PT
Fake Hurt Dog Trick
Ah...My Nancy Drew experience never lets me down.
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Comment #32 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:03:57 PT
Mark Souder 
Yeah, Mayan...The least he can do is to volunteer to be exposed heavily to it to prove that it's not dangerous to humans.Hmmmm.
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Comment #31 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:01:52 PT
He's probablly clawing away and sulking 
just far enough away that I can't hear the rest of his ruckus.
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Comment #30 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 18:00:16 PT
I bet I know
A lonesome Basset in a kennel...everytime he sees anyone.:0(If it's where I think it is. He won't be alone long.
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Comment #29 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 17:57:34 PT
Something odd here...
A fake sounding hurt dog sound when I have gone outside today, twice. My granddaughter also heard it. Then she tells me tha her mother heard the same sound when they arrived ...the other day.Seems odd. I'd say it sounds like a freshly being hurt Basset Hound. Everytime.I'm not frightened for myself or my granddaughter. I'm just wondering.There was a strange man working the fenceline today. Makes you go Hmmmmm.Think I'll tote.Tote.
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Comment #28 posted by Dankhank on June 07, 2006 at 16:59:20 PT
stewart
rerun of 6,6,6 show  now on CC
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Comment #27 posted by mayan on June 07, 2006 at 16:58:41 PT
Mark Souder
Perhaps we could put Mark Souder in a contained bio-sphere and conduct more research on this fungus before we spray it all over Columbia. I'm sure Souder would go along with that!On an unrelated note, who would benefit from a terror attack right now when the neo-con agenda is imploding? The stage is being set...Another Terrorist Attack Coming Soon? 
CBS News: U.S. Officials Believe Recent Incidents Point To An Imminent Threat:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/05/terror/main1683852.shtmlSetting up the patsies...Toronto Star: 'Perhaps Toronto 17 Not Terrorists At All':
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/june2006/070606notterrorists.htmToronto Terrorist Ringleader Has Military Connections:
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/june2006/080606militaryconnections.htmTHE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...FBI says, “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”:
http://www.teamliberty.net/id267.htmlMixed Media Reaction To Chicago 9/11 Conference Shows Progress:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2006/070606mediareaction.htmNotes on Chicago Keynote Speech by Alex Jones:
http://www.911blogger.com/2006/06/notes-on-chicago-keynote-speech-by.htmlNews from the Chicago 9/11 Truth Conference: 
http://www.9eleven.info/ChicagoJun06.html5 9/11 Widows Respond to Ann Coulter Attack:
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=880Countdown's Keith Olbermann's Revisits Pre-9/11 Warnings -- Tie to Judith Miller:
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8799/11 Truth – The Key To Stopping World War III:
http://www.911blogger.com/2006/06/911-truth-key-to-stopping-world-war.html
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Comment #26 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 16:31:17 PT
Delaware County Father Praised For Tough Love
Turned His Son Into Police After Discovering MarijuanaJune 7, 2006(CBS 3) UPPER DARBY -- Authorities in Delaware County are praising a father for his tough love after turning his own son into police.Complete Article: http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_158175704.html
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 16:11:04 PT
Hope
I wonder that too. 
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Comment #24 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 15:46:45 PT
Helicopters are tremendously expensive
to fly. Extremely.Wonder where they are going to use the helicopters instead? Probably something even worse.
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 15:40:08 PT
Her son was relatively "safe" until she came
out for truth and reason. "Almost immediately afterward, her son Kevin was arrested for cocaine possession, in what she still believes was a frame-up designed to embarrass her and the president."She irritated the "Handlers". Who do you think the "Handlers" are? The ruling elite? Who, exactly are they and why? I know the Bushes and Semblars are likely people with a lot of say... and Ken Lay WAS a "Handler". Those who would dare to decide the future for all of us and play with our lives like we are their toys to do with as they please.How dare they? They are a bunch of spoiled, arrogant rich kids and they expect to have things their way or no way.
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 15:33:28 PT
Yeah...that's the heinous thing she said,
"...should be studied".Well Jocelyn, Dear, some of us did "Study" it. And we didn't like what we found.
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 15:31:51 PT
Elders! That's right! Jocelyn!
I'm terrible with names sometimes.Well...a lot of the time.Dates even more so. It started in History class. I'm pretty sure of it.She was treated badly and humiliated, as I remember.
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 15:04:43 PT
Hope
Is this who you mean? Here's an excerpt:Elders wrote a book an attempt to present her side of the controversies that surrounded her during her 18-month tenure as surgeon general. Already reviled by conservatives for advocating abortion rights and condom distribution in schools, Elders drew fire — and censure from the Clinton administration — when she suggested that legalizing drugs might help reduce crime and that the idea should be studied. Almost immediately afterward, her son Kevin was arrested for cocaine possession, in what she still believes was a frame-up designed to embarrass her and the president.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Elders
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Comment #19 posted by global_warming on June 07, 2006 at 14:59:48 PT
a side note
Rumsfeld proposes pullout on drug effort"http://tinyurl.com/pkog9MIAMI - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to end Army helicopter support for a joint U.S.-Bahamas drug-interdiction program that over the past two decades has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of cocaine and marijuana.Guess those thin resources are really catching up, hmmm,,
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 14:39:14 PT
Robbing his Peter to pay his Paul.
Yes...but. It's not something that happens often...for a politico to "question" any drug policy. Usually they are trying to ramp up the violence and persecution.Guess maybe we are running out of money, like Kap has always said...and something has to go. Ode to the narc reassigned to Kansas...or Indiana."Bye. Bye. Bermuda!"Say "Bye", boys and girls who make their income doing this "gig".It's likely considered a desirable assignment. "Ahh, Bermuda on the weekends.""And getting paid to do it."The song, once sung is over.Bet they are scrambling and burning up phonelines trying to save their assignments.Scrunched over in the bars instead of stretched out on the beach.
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 14:30:30 PT
Remember what they did to Kirkpatrick?
Wasn't that her name? She was appointed by Clinton...and "Oops. She said too much."Remember how much attention was given to that Surgeon General's ideas on Drug Policy?I think it went something like, "Get her out of here and shut her up."Yup. Up the proverbial political and social river she went! Rather quickly, too.
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 14:29:03 PT
Hope
The article looks like he wants to shift the money more then for any other reason.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 14:25:03 PT
Do the people even have the power
to see that "reason" could even rein in "profits", much less, "reign" over it?Enough is enough.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 14:21:05 PT
Hmmmm
Will reason reign over profits?Ever?
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 14:13:01 PT
Rummy...
Waiting for the sound of Rumsfield's head rolling across the deck of the bounding U.S.S. Neo-con.His usual buds are bound to be pulling their hair out and screaming "What about the profits?! What about that?!"They always get ostracized. Why would he do it? Maybe he see's ostracization coming from another direction and is going to say what he thinks once or twice before he goes down.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 13:25:36 PT
Haven't got time to read the entire
article yet...but am pretty stunned to see any high up in the admininistration "question" the validity of the drug war and it's tactics.I think that's what he said.
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 13:23:17 PT
Comment 10
Wow...What do you think of that?Kap?
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 13:03:43 PT
News Article from The Associated Press
Rumsfeld Proposes Army Pull Out of U.S.-Bahamas Drug Effort***Curt Anderson, Associated PressJune 7, 2006MIAMI - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to end Army helicopter support for a joint U.S.-Bahamas counterdrug program, raising questions about the future of a decades-long effort that has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of cocaine and marijuana.The Army's seven Blackhawk helicopters and their crews form the backbone of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration credits for helping drive cocaine and marijuana smugglers away from the Bahamas and its easy access to Florida's coast.Complete Article: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/14763051.htm
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on June 07, 2006 at 12:50:05 PT:
What ELSE would you call it?
n 2000, when Congress first passed “Plan Colombia,” the Colombian aid package that ordered the use of the fungus in Colombia, President Clinton waived the part of the bill that dealt with the fungus because he thought its use would be perceived as biological warfare.Ya think? We are already engaging in chemical warfare against mainly helpless campesinos with spraying glyphosphate. Children have sickened, possibly died, and vast swaths of land have been poisoned, perhaps irrevocably. Whole regions have been poisoned in this way, driving the narcos further and further into the increasingly fragile rainforest, causing the prohibs to follow, spraying as they go...poisoning what are in effect the lungs of the planet.And now some fools want to risk the entire food chain with their pet monster F. oxysporum? Mutegens just keep mutating, seeking more hosts...and killing them in the process. Suppose one takes a liking to grasses (recall how many of our domestic animals require them), cereal crops, or fruit trees? There goes most of the world's food supplies. Madness knows no bounds in American politics...and madmen know no boundaries, either.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 12:48:51 PT
"Drug War Jihadists"
Very true.Way to call it, Mr. Jeremy Bigwood.
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Comment #7 posted by dongenero on June 07, 2006 at 12:04:52 PT
Drugs in Iraq
The Iraq War—On DrugsIn Iraq and Afghanistan, when “suck it up” fails to snap a soldier out of depression or panic, the Army turns to drugs. “Soldiers I talked to were receiving bags of antidepressants and sleeping meds in Iraq, but not the trauma care they needed,” says Steve Robinson, a Defense Department intelligence analyst during the Clinton administration.Sometimes sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed by qualified personnel. Sometimes not. Sgt. Georg Anderas Pogany told Salon that after he broke down in Iraq, his team sergeant told him “to pull himself together, gave him two Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, and ordered him to sleep.”Other soldiers self-medicate. “We were so junked out on Valium, we had no emotions anymore,” Iraq vet John Crawford told “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. He and others in his unit in Iraq became addicted to Valium.http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2670/
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Comment #6 posted by dongenero on June 07, 2006 at 11:56:15 PT
"drug war jihadists"
Now there is a good term. I would say that puts the proper spin on the likes of Souder and Burton. "Jihadists" they are.I wonder how their constituents would like all of their crops destroyed by mutated Fusarium.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 11:40:00 PT
Souder
is a barely disguised sadist of some sort.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 11:38:55 PT
Why would they vote for him?
Yes, pork...of course. But an even worse scenario presents itself. There are plenty of people like Souder, apparently.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on June 07, 2006 at 11:36:59 PT
I've got to refrain from comments
for a bit on this.Maybe if Souder had contracted this problem with contact lense solution, he wouldn't be so gung-ho to inflict it on others.The rotten, filthy, hateful, proud, arrogant, cruel, stupid, merciless, despicable, no good ....I must refrain.
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Comment #2 posted by Dankhank on June 07, 2006 at 11:33:50 PT
pork
He evidently brings lotsa pork home for his constituients ...porksuckers ...
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 07, 2006 at 11:26:35 PT
Souder
Why do they vote for him in Indiana?
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