COLOMBIA TO TEST COCA HERBICIDE

DRUGS: The U.S. made weed killer can be dropped from higher
altitudes,boosting pilot safety, but its maker opposes this use.

Bogota, Colombia - Bowing to demands from Washington, the Colombian
government has agreed to test a granular herbicide to kill coca
crops,despite public warnings from the chemical's U.S. manufacturer against
its use in Colombia.

In the United States, the herbicide, tebuthiuron, is used mostly to control
weeds on railroad beds and under high-voltage lines far from food crops and
people.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires a warning label on the
chemical that says it could contaminate ground water,a side effect
Colombian environmental officials fear could prevent peasants from growing
where coca once grew.

U.S. officials have decided to concentrate more heavily on treating illegal
drug crops with chemicals, particularly in parts of southern Colombia under
the control of leftist guerrillas. Those guerrillas have fired on aircraft
attempting to spray herbicides on coca crops. But tebuthiuron can be
dropped instead of sprayed, making the task easier under such conditions.

The increase in fumigation comes at the expense of other measures to
control drug smuggling, a recent U.S. government investigation concluded.

U.S. and Colombian police officials say a granular herbicide will be more
effective in the battle to control drugs. For four years, they have used a
liquid toxin, glifosate, that has destroyed only 30 percent of the plants
sprayed.

Despite the effort, the amount of coca in Colombia has yet to decline,
because eradication has prompted farmers to move and plant coca elsewhere.
Last year, Colombia became the world's leading coca grower.

U.S. and Colombia authorities also contend that tebuthiuron offers greater
protection from gunfire for pilots, who must now fly low to fumigate in the
early morning hours, when winds are calm and temperatures are lower.
Tebuthiuron pellets can be dropped from higher altitudes in virtually any
weather, making pilots less vulnerable to gunfire, police officials here
said.

Washington has lobbied Andean governments to accept tebuthiuron for more
than a decade, even though the chemical's manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, a
subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., strongly opposes its use in Colombia.

"Tebuthiuron is not labeled for use on any crops in Colombia, and it is our
desire that the product not be used for coca eradication as well," the
company said in a statement.

Tebuthiuron granules, sold commercially as Spike 20P, should be used
"carefully and in controlled situations," Dow cautioned, because "it can be
very risky in situations where terrain has slopes, rainfall is significant,
desirable plants are nearby and application is made under less than ideal
circumstances."

The warning is a rough description of conditions in Colombia's coca-growing
regions. Dow, which faced years of lawsuits and public protest over the use
of its Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam war, said that if
approached, it would refuse to sell tebuthiuron for use in Colombia.
However, U.S. officials note that Dow's patent on the chemical has expired,
allowing others to make it legally.

Critics in Colombia, including Eduardo Verano, the nation's environmental
minister, say the health effects of tebuthiuron on farming areas are
unknown, and its use will only increase deforestation by pushing coca
growers deeper into forest.

"We need to reconsider the benefits of the chemical war," said Verano. "The
more you fumigate, the more the farmers plant. If you fumigate one hectare,
they'll grow coca on two more. How else do you explain the figures?"

U.S. officials, backed by Colombian police, maintain that the benefits
outweigh the environmental risks. The liquid herbicide used now, at a cost
of millions of dollars to the United States, has mostly been washed away in
the heavy rainfall of the Amazon, said Luiz Eduardo Parra, environmental
auditor of Colombia's anti-narcotics squad.

The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Curtis Kamman, said, "For a net
environmental positive effect, getting rid of coca is the best course for
Colombia." Research in Hawaii, Panama and Peru by the U.S. Agriculture
Department concluded that tebuthiuron would persist in Colombian soil for
less than a year.

Where once the United States concentrated on arresting drug barons,
smashing their organizations and seizing their wealth, the new strategy
involves greater fumigation and the interception of boats that may be
carrying drugs or chemicals needed to make cocaine from the coca.

In March, the State Department's acting assistant secretary of state for
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Rand Beers, outlined a
plan to increase fumigation in the southern provinces of Caqueta and
Putumayo, and asked Congress to pump $21 million more into the $30 million
counter-narcotics budget for Colombia this year.

He said drug traffickers made a strategic decision to grow coca in southern
Colombia because of U.S. success in blocking Peruvian drug planes that fly
raw paste to Colombia, where it is made into cocaine. The United States
must seize the opportunity to prevent Colombian-grown coca from taking its
place, he told Congress.

But U.S. intelligence analysts say these statements exaggerate the victory
at intercepting drug planes, and that coca base is still reaching Colombia
from Bolivia and Peru. According to U.S. government figures, 78 percent of
the cocaine leaving Colomia is made from coca grown elsewhere.

The General Accounting Office, in a February report, concluded that a
dramatic increase in coca fumigation and drug interception in Colombia was
ill planned, and shortchanged other anti-naracotics programs.