Use fungus to destroy drug fields, Souder says

[Guest guest]

Use fungus to destroy drug fields, Souder says

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN

By Sylvia A.

Washington editor

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/14685933.htm

A National Police Turbothrush airplane sprays glyphosate, a chemical

herbicide, in Colombia's southern jungle in a January 1998 effort to

wipe out illegal crops of coca. Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, is pushing

for the United States to ready a fungus that would attack only coca

plants.

WASHNGTON – If a fungus can be unleashed to kill the plants that

produce cocaine and heroin without contaminating the soil, Rep. Mark

Souder, R-3rd, contends, the U.S. government should test it and then

use it in the drug fields of Colombia and Afghanistan.

He's angry at what he sees as foot-dragging in the Bush

administration, especially in the drug czar's office.

" We're frustrated and amazed at the resistance to looking at

alternative methods " of eradicating the drug-producing plants,

Souder said.

But the drug czar, Walters, and his staff say a coca-killing

fungus – Fusarium oxysporum – might wreak havoc in the soil, ruining

it for any kind of plants, including the crops the U.S. wants

Colombian and Afghan farmers to grow instead of coca and poppies.

Cocaine is made from coca plants; heroin is made from poppies.

The government's own scientists, however, say those concerns are

unjustified, based on tests Walters said haven't occurred.

Fusarium is a naturally occurring fungus that can cause many plant

diseases. Each strain of Fusarium oxysporum is thought to attack

only one kind of plant. Skeptics, including the drug czar's office,

say it's not known whether the fungus designed to kill coca plants

would spread to other plants or jump to humans. A recent outbreak of

eye infections linked to contact lens solution has been blamed on

one kind of Fusarium.

" It's an organism that could mutate into another organism that kills

everything, " said Riley, spokesman for the drug czar's

office. " The concern is if it mutates into something else, you've

unleashed it on the wild. "

He said the experiment by federal scientists " although interesting,

was not conclusive concerning the safety and specificity of

Fusarium. "

Souder boils over at that attitude. But his anger at the drug czar's

office was eclipsed by his frustration with the lack of

communication among government agencies when he learned – from a

journalist – that a coca-killing fungus was identified by the

Agriculture Department and tested in Hawaii a decade ago.

In those tests – set up to test the effects of chemical herbicides

on coca plants – the coca plants inexplicably started to die.

Eventually, scientists discovered that a Fusarium in the soil

attacked coca plants (but not native vegetation).

Adding more Fusarium killed the plants faster, said , a

plant pathologist with the department's Agriculture Research Service

and the lead scientist on the Hawaii project.

That strain of Fusarium kills only coca plants, said.

" We were never able to infect anything other than eruthroxylum

coca, " he said, using the scientific name for coca plants.

A chemical herbicide also kills coca plants and does so quicker,

said. But the difference is that after Fusarium is in the

soil, it will kill coca plants year after year. Chemical herbicides

have to be applied regularly.

So why doesn't the government adopt a fungus approach to killing

coca, particularly in Colombia, where the U.S. has spent more than

$5 billion since 2000 on trying to disrupt the production of coca?

" The current herbicide that we are using is effective, " Walters told

Rep. Dan Burton, R-5th, at a hearing last year when Burton demanded

to know why the tests haven't been launched.

That herbicide – glyphosate – is commonly sold in the U.S. as

Roundup, which is used to zap weeds in fields growing soybeans, corn

or other crops. In Colombia, it is sprayed from planes on coca

fields; the pilots are subject to being shot at from rebels on the

ground.

But Burton said glyphosate has to be applied every few months,

whereas Fusarium oxysporum is a once-and-done treatment.

Walters said it's not clear that Fusarium oxysporum works on coca or

that it won't kill other crops or harm the environment.

He said the Colombian government is not willing to allow the U.S. to

test the fungus in their country, adding, " I don't think it is

prudent or promising to test it at this time. "

Souder said he was unaware of the Agriculture Department's 1995

experiments in Hawaii and that other government agencies – the State

Department and the drug czar's office – have maintained for years

that Fusarium oxysporum remained untested and unwanted by foreign

governments.

" What the State Department told me is there are environmental

concerns for what it does to the soil, " he said.

Souder said it should be easy enough to test the Hawaiian fields

that are infected with the coca-killing fungus to see whether other

crops can grow there. If they can, he said, the Colombian government

could probably be persuaded to accept a field test before the fungus

is spread throughout the coca-growing region.

He said the same approach – a biological herbicide – should be

tested on poppy plants with a goal of using it in Afghanistan.

But spreading a non-native fungus in farmers' fields is tantamount

to biological warfare, according to an organization created to stop

what it says are dangers from biotechnology, and the U.S. has signed

an international treaty promising not to use biological weapons in a

war zone.

" Hostile use of a biological agent is biological warfare, " said

Hammond, director of the U.S. office of the Sunshine Project.

" If you apply a biological agent by force in a conflict zone, where

people routinely even shoot down crop eradication planes, you are

damn right that it's a hostile use. This is the case in Colombia,

and the same would certainly apply in Afghanistan, " he said.

Colombia produces more than 80 percent of the worldwide powder

cocaine supply and about 90 percent of the powder cocaine smuggled

into the U.S., according to Drug Enforcement Administration

estimates.

The amount of Colombian land used to cultivate coca has been cut in

half in the past four years, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs

and Crime, which says aerial spraying of chemical herbicides is

largely responsible for the reduction.

Nevertheless, the agency said in its most recent report, 60 percent

of the fields now being used to grow coca are new.

Hammond said aside from the environmental and biological warfare

concerns of launching a biological herbicide into Colombia, " coca

farmers will figure a way around it pretty quickly. Has years of

spraying chemicals made a dent? Nope. Fusarium oxysporum isn't

a `magic bullet' either. "

This year, the House passed legislation that includes a provision

calling for the drug czar's office to develop a plan to test a

fungus " in a major drug-producing nation. " It doesn't specify

Fusarium oxysporum, the test country or what plants the fungus

should be used on. Action on the bill by the Senate is questionable.

It's not the first time Congress has called for the development or

tests of a fungus to kill drug-producing plants. But at a hearing in

2002, for instance, administration officials said the Bush

administration hadn't – to that point – discussed using the coca-

killing fungus with the new Colombian government.

Now, Souder said, the fungus should be used on coca plants in

Colombia.

That should never happen, Hammond said.

" Yes, of course, coca is not a good crop when it is grown to produce

cocaine, " he said. " But the fact that a crop is destined for such a

malicious product does not mean that you can suspend the law in your

quest to stop it. "

sylviasmith@...

[Guest guest]

Isn't the US signatory to a slew of biological warfare treaties?

In the past, we have raised a major stink when the Russians used Fusarium

(trichothecene) toxins (i.e. 'yellow rain') in Afghanistan.

What makes this different now?