POT-EATING FUNGUS RAISES MUTATION FEARS

Florida environmentalists voiced their anxiety yesterday about
government plans to start testing a new marijuana-eating fungus as a
possible weapon against the drug plantations hidden among the state's
famous swamps.

The fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, was cultivated in the laboratories of
a Montana bio-engineering firm, and is designed to attack marijuana
while leaving other plants untouched. But ecologists are concerned
that it might mutate if sprayed on the fertile wetlands.

Florida's newly appointed "drug tsar", Jim McDonough, stressed that no
decision had been taken so far to use the fungus, but expressed
optimism that it would pass safety tests.

"Is it safe and does it work? I've heard some of the top scientists in
the country say 'Yes'," Mr McDonough said.

But Florida's environmental protection secretary, David Struhs, wrote
to Mr McDonough warning him of the dangers of the pot-killing fungus.

"Fusarium species are capable of evolving rapidly," he wrote.
"Mutagenicity [the tendency to mutate] is by far the most disturbing
factor in attempting to use a Fusarium species as a
bio-herbicide."

Mr Struhs said controlling the species was "difficult if not
impossible" in Florida's hothouse climate, and it could lead to
disease in crops like tomatoes, peppers and corn.

In the past Florida's drug-busters have braved alligators and snakes
by wading through the swamps because marijuana growers often make
their plantations impossible to spot from the air by sowing them among
corn and tomato vines.

Last year the state managed to destroy more than 55,000 plants with a
street value of $55m (pounds 35m).

But the authorities believe that that represents a small percentage of
the total annual crop, and there is pressure from the state's mainly
Republican politicians to find new weapons.

The US has spent $14m researching biological-weapons which could be
used against poppy, coca and marijuana plants, but the findings are
shrouded in secrecy.

US officials denied recent accusations by Peruvian farmers that the
Drug Enforcement Administration used a fungus to destroy coca plants
in the war against cocaine.

The farmers said the fungus had spread to banana, tangerine and other
food crops.