FUNGUS TESTS RAISE CONCERN

Coca-Killer Could Do More Harm Than Good, Critics Fear

BOGOTA, Colombia -- On a tropical Hawaiian island, a killer fungus once
ravaged a field of coca bushes that Coca-Cola hoped would provide flavoring
for its soft drinks.

The plague in the 1970s ruined Coca-Cola's plan to buy coca outside the
Andean region. But it excited counter-drug experts in Washington, who later
spent millions of dollars on a quest for a biological weapon to destroy the
Andean bushes fueling the cocaine trade.

Now, under prodding from Washington, a U.N. agency wants to test the
laboratory-grown fungus on a small plot in Colombia, where much of the
world's coca is grown. The proposal has whipped up a minor tempest.
Opponents say the fungus might be toxic to farmers and wreak havoc on
jungles that are treasures of biodiversity. Advocates say the fungus may
become a ``silver bullet" to kill coca plants and leave other plants
unaffected.

'Worth trying'

"Our experts tell us that it is worth trying," said Klaus Nyholm, director
of the U.N. Drug Control Program's office in Colombia and Ecuador.

U.S. scientists say they don't know yet whether the fungus would safely
kill the nearly 300,000 acres of coca grown in Colombia without affecting
other flora, or even human life.

"The tests show so far that it is a reasonably good control agent. But I
wouldn't extrapolate from that that it will work in Colombia," said Eric
Rosenquist, a national program leader at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Research Service in Beltsville, Md. "The ecology is
different. There are competing organisms."

U.S. counter-drug experts, though, cite compelling reasons to experiment
further with the fungus, fusarium oxysporum, which is considered a plant
pathogen, or mycoherbicide.

For one, they say the fungus can be attached to seeds and dropped from high
altitude. That beats the current strategy, in which U.S.-financed
crop-dusters buzz illegal coca fields at 150 feet or so -- sometimes
risking a hail of bullets from the ground. Gunmen have hit spray planes 36
times so far this year, U.S. officials say. Moreover, planes could fly at
night to drop the fungus, using sensors to target coca fields.

"It looks incredibly promising," said Richard Baum, a policy analyst at the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "However, we are
waiting for the results of tests, and will proceed only if the scientists
working with the government of Colombia tell us that mycoherbicides are safe."

Although aides to President Andres Pastrana have reportedly expressed a
"keen interest" to the U.N. agency to test the fungus, Environment Minister
Juan Mayr said he is adamantly opposed.

"I told them, 'Gentlemen, your project is not welcome,' " Mayr said.

Last year, amid an outcry from environmentalists and ranchers, the state of
Florida shelved a plan to test another strain of fusarium oxysporum against
illegal marijuana crops.

"If it's bad for Florida, why is it good for us?" asked Sen. Rafael Orduz,
who called a hearing on the plan to test the fungus in early June.

Research classified

For most of the last decade, the U.S. government has used chemical
herbicides against coca plants in Colombia, fighting an overall losing battle.

A hunt for a biological alternative to chemical herbicides against coca
began in earnest in 1987, with secret U.S. funding and classified research.

The research quickly focused on fusarium oxysporum, the same fungus that
was identified through DNA testing as the cause of the wilt in Hawaii a
decade earlier. That wilt, which was contained to a tiny experimental
field, affected the same species as illicit coca grown in Colombia.

Coca-Cola has relied on the coca leaf for flavoring since 1905, according
to Rafael Fernandez, a spokesman in the company's Atlanta headquarters. But
the cocaine content is taken out under a process controlled by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration.

As Washington's interest in the fungus grew, U.S. scientists tested it to
see whether it would target only coca -- or harm other plants as well.

"Over 100 plant species have been tested for susceptibility to this
pathogen. None have been adversely affected," said a report released last
month from U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey's office.

Opponents of the fungus say the U.S. government is giving the plan a
multilateral veneer by paying for U.N. testing of fusarium in Colombia.
They also believe that Washington will steamroll over Colombian reticence
as a condition for letting loose on a huge nearly $1 billion
counter-narcotics package.

Proposed use of the fungus has generated debate in scientific circles --
and cries of alarm from concerned laypeople over what they view as
experimental biowarfare. Some fear the fungus could mutate and threaten
Colombia's delicate Amazon region, one of the most diverse regions on
Earth, or release toxins that could sicken humans with weak immune systems.

And Orduz, the Colombian senator, said he is unhappy with clauses in the
U.N. proposal that make Colombia's government solely liable should any
problems arise during testing, while it forgoes any intellectual right to
the results.