FUNGICIDAL FEDS

Drug War Expanding To Ecological Attack

At what point does the cost of escalating US efforts to eradicate
drugs by force eclipse the benefit?

Many would argue that the toll on our own population, from an
exponentially increasing prison population, to a multi billion dollar
"War on Drugs"engaged to combat the expansive black market has done
little to curb drug use. After three decades of fighting drugs with
force, thousands of Americans still deal with addiction and face death
because the government refuses to consider reasonable and viable
alternatives to a costly, all-out assault on substance abuse.

In addition to annual budgets of $17.9 billion federally and $20
billion from states, the Senate is considering supporting drug czar
Barry McCaffrey's goal of "supply reduction" abroad by using
questionable herbicides and fungal agents to wipe out crops of illegal
plants.

"Fifty-two thousand Americans die every year from drugs," Clinton said
in a speech May 2nd, pushing a $1.6 billion aid package, which would
provide arms, resources, and capital to Colombia's democratic
government in their war with guerrillas and drug cartels.

Called "Aid Colombia," the package would also step up US efforts to
eradicate cocaine and opium by spraying herbicides and fungal agents
on Colombian coca and poppy farms.

Because 90% of US cocaine comes from Colombia, reducing the amount of
coca grown in that region is the main goal under the current drug
elimination plan.

But according to a study by the conservative RAND Corporation,
treating cocaine users is 23 times more effective, dollar for dollar,
than eliminating coca at its source.

The Senate, as it debates the amount and terms of this aid package,
should consider allocating less to the eradication of drugs and more
to providing treatment.

Drug eradication may temporarily cut cocaine flow, but for how long
and at what cost environmentally?

The environmental concern stems from an amendment to the Aid Colombia
program, which requires Clinton and the Colombian government to agree
to "implementing a strategy to eliminate Colombia's total coca and
opium poppy production" with, in addition to herbicides, "tested,
environmentally safe mycoherbicides." According to Mother Jones' News
Wire, abundant evidence shows that the only mycoherbicide, or
plant-killing fungus, being considered is Fusarium oxysporum, which
Florida refused to test for its own drug eradication efforts after
warnings from a state official that it could mutate, spread rapidly
and kill other plants.

With a fragile ecosystem and an economy based largely on rural
agriculture, using oxysporum may be devastating to the long-term
stability of the Colombian environment and its farming economy. In
addition, this fungus may cause lethal infection in humans with weak
immune systems in certain circumstances.

Another effect of the US-sponsored herbicide use to eradicate coca and
poppy fields is a threat to the stability of the farming population as
well. The New York Times reported this month that many of the planes
currently spraying Colombian coca and poppy farms are hitting
legitimate crops as well, having the opposite effect on the level of
cocaine production. While the US denies these allegations, farmers who
agreed to grow legal crops may have little choice but to plant cash
crops like coca when faced with devastating financial losses from
crops hit by herbicides.

It is becoming ever clearer that the present "war" is a
misappropriation of resources.

It is apparent that such militaristic efforts are incapable of
producing significant change in the flow of drugs in this country.

These heavy-handed tools of social management are eating capital and
threatening the environment with the futile hope of eliminating
illegal drugs instead of addressing the human side of the issue.

With the number of deaths from drugs in the thousands, the United
State's willingness to funnel more money into draconian interdiction
initiatives instead of sane programs of drug education and
rehabilitation ignores the reality of the situation.

Involvement in supply reduction pursuits is dangerous to the
environment and produces scant long-term benefits.

Hopefully our government can learn from past mistakes in the War on
Drugs and will not engage in such unwise interdiction efforts in Colombia.