U.S. MIGHT ENLIST FUNGI IN DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON - U.S. researchers are using genetic engineering to create
strains of fungi that will destroy opium poppies and coca plants, Rep. Bill
McCollum confirmed Wednesday.

They'll receive $23 million to continue research as part of the $500 billion
spending bill approved Wednesday in the Senate and signed by President
Clinton. The vote was 65-29.

McCollum, R-Fla., who co-wrote the Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act,
said the research on the coca and poppy fungi is in the advanced stages. It
is expected to be finished in about a year.

''This is something on the cusp of being successful,'' McCollum said.

The two plants being targeted are processed into highly addictive drugs:
Opium poppies into heroin and coca plants into cocaine.

The money also will allow research to begin on a fungus that could be used
to eliminate marijuana plants.

If successful, the Department of Agriculture's research could dramatically
alter eradication efforts. The fungi would kill plants and prevent new ones.

Currently, anti-drug forces cut down plants and burn fields as one of the
primary eradication methods.

The United States would need permission from other countries to use the
fungi, but McCollum said the concept has support from Bolivia, Colombia and
Peru.

X.B. Yang, a plant pathologist at Iowa State University who works on
creating biological ways of controlling weeds, says certain fungi only
attack specific plants.

He says researchers look for the most aggressive, toxic fungi to attack
menacing plants. They also seek fungi that can be reproduced industrially.

''It is definitely a silver bullet in the drug war,'' he says.

Researchers are concerned, however, that land treated with the fungi would
be poisoned.

Charles Mazza, a horticulturist at Cornell University, says research
projects such as the eradication project take years. If a project is rushed,
''all kinds of things can happen.''

''One year a fungus might be promising, and the next year it might leap over
into a corn field. That's why you do research for years. It has to be tested
every step of the way.''

Checked-by: Don Beck