U.S. GROWS KILLER FUNGUS TO FIGHT HEROIN

A secret U.S.-funded biological weapon to wipe out the heroin trade is in
the final stages of development, raising fears in the scientific community
that a monster germ will wreak an "ecological catastrophe."

For the past two years, scientists funded by the U.S. and British
governments have been developing a killer fungus that they say destroys the
opium poppies that produce the raw material for heroin.

Their base of operations is a lab in a high-security former Soviet
biological weapons lab in Uzbekistan called the Uzbekistan Genetics Institute.

Now, scientists at the rundown plant are using their lethal expertise not
only to isolate the fungus known as Pleospora Papaverecea, but also to
figure how to genetically engineer it to make it more aggressive, according
to United Nations officials supervising the project.

They've also developed a formula in which the fungus spores would be mixed
with a talc and silica gel to make it a liquid weapon that could be sprayed
from aircraft over poppy fields in central Asia.

The idea, says Edward Rosenquist, director of International Operations for
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is to create a safe, cheap and
efficient "silver bullet" to eradicate drug crops rather than use harmful
and expensive chemical herbicides.

Lab testing of the new weapon has recently been completed and the Uzbeki
group's research soon will be submitted to the larger scientific community
for "peer review," said Sandro Tucci, director of the U.N.'s Drug Control
Program, which is supervising the project.

Tucci told The Post that in field trials the genetically manipulated fungus
caused opium poppies to wilt and die but left 130 other species unharmed.

But the possible introduction of the genetically altered organism into the
environment has created a firestorm.

"This is biological warfare. It runs the risk of causing an ecological
catastrophe. It is a hideously bad idea," said Ed Hammonds of the Sunshine
Project, an Austin, Texas-based public interest group.

Many scientists warn that the culture could mutate and attack other plants
- - and possibly animals and humans.

"There are all kinds of ways that the DNA of the organism could spread,
mutate and create hybrids, and I think there needs to be a great deal of
care put into this before it is even considered," said Dr. Sheldon Krimsky,
professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts.

There are also fears that, once sprayed in Afghanistan, for example,
terrorist groups could easily gain access to the fungus and use it to
create their own organisms for revenge attacks on other crops.

Tucci calls such fears unfounded.

"The idea that this is some kind of plot from 'Dr. No' that a monster is
being created in a laboratory is nonsense. The United Nations does not
engage in these kinds of things," he said.

The Clinton administration last year won congressional approval to spend
$23 million to research "bio-active" materials for the war on drugs.