Biological Warfare in the War on Drugs

Biological Warfare in the War on Drugs
Tom Blickman
TNI Website, September 1998

"Biological herbicides to destroy drug crops are seen as a promising tool in international drug control efforts. Chemical herbicides like glyphosate used in Colombia have proven to be not sufficiently effective, and new stronger herbicides like tebuthiuron (or Spike) meet with opposition, because they cause even more damage to people and the environment. Biological herbicides geneticly engineered from natural fungi seem promising to find environmentally safe methods to fight coca and opium poppy crops."

Pathogenic fungi could prove effective. In Peru, for instance, a natural born fungus is causing much damage to the coca crop and forces poor peasants to abandon their fields. There are reports that the spread of the fungus in Peru was not only natural but that DEA agents and Peruvian police were dropping the mushroom from helicopters onto other coca fields. (See: Peru farmers blame US for coca-killing fungus, The Miami Herald, June 2, 1991). However, there is no solid evidence to support the allegation.

In several laboratories around the world scientist are trying to isolate pathogenic fungi to fight coca and opium poppy cultivation. But biological herbicides are not environmentally safe by nature, although it is presented as an environmentally friendly alternative because it avoids the use of chemicals. There is the danger of a geneticly engineered fungus "going wild". It can develop an unintentional mutation that could destroy food crops.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programma (UNDCP), supported by the British and United States governments, increasingly considers the use of biological control agents to counter the cultivation of drug crops. In its controversial Strategy for Coca and Opium Poppy Elimination (SCOPE), which aims to eradicate the illicit cultivation of
coca and opium poppy by the year 2008, a paragraph is devoted to a research programme for a biological agent which could destroy the opium poppy.

In paragraph 75 the SCOPE plan says: "UNDCP also intends to test, through an applied research programma in Uzbekistan, a biological control agent based on the plant pathogenic fungus "Dendryphion papaveraceae". The agent is claimed to have been found in other central Asian States. An important step will be to confirm its natural occurrence throughout the region (in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), which would contribute to ascertaining whether it is environmentally safe for use in poppy-growing

areas, especially in central Asia."

In February 1998, the UNDCP signed a US$ 650.000 contract with the "Institute of Genetics and Plants Experimental Biology" of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan for a 3.5 year research programme to develop a "reliable biological control agent" for opium poppy (UNDCP Project Nr AD/RER/98/C37). Initially, the donors to the project insisted on anonymity, indicating the controversial nature of the programme.

In March 1998 the "Christian Science Monitor" first reported on the project (See: At Heroin's Source Hope Rises For a Way to Cut Opium Crops, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 March 1998). The news did not spark of any controversy, until "The Sunday Times" disclosed that "Britain is engaged in a secret attempt to crush the worldwide heroin trade with biological warfare" in June 1998. (See: Britain Funds Biological War Against Heroin, The Sunday Times, 28 June 1998).

The Times reporter described the "Institute of Genetics" as a former Soviet Union centre for "germ warfare research". Since Uzbekistan's independence the Institute no longer takes their orders from Moscow, but has practically no financial resources and poor scientific equipment. Scientist and UN staff have been forbidden to discuss the project by UNDCPs headquarters in Vienna.

The costs of the programme are shared by the British and the United States Government, according to The Sunday Times. Intelligence services of both countries are involved from the planning stage and "may have a role in the deployment of the fungus". The UK Foreign Office confirmed that Britain is funding the research.

Subsequently, the UNDCP issued an angry press release. While acknowledging support for the research project, the UNDCP stated that they were not involved in developing any "biological weapon" nor that they conducted any research on "biological warfare": "These terms are totally inappropriate and gravely distort the nature of the project". The UN agency called the statements that intelligence agents and germ warfare experts are involved in the project "baseless".

Nevertheless, secrecy and security beset the project. There is serious concern about academic access and scientific accountability of the project results. The planned post-project technical symposium seems to be at odds with the Institute of Genetics reputation that it is "well versed in all aspects of confidentiality". This seems to put at risk a critical scientific screening of the research and development of biological herbicides for the interdiction of drug crops.

More reason for concern is that drug control officials tend to have an optimistic view on what is safe for people and the environment. For instance, the Project Document on the Uzbekistan programme describes the chemical herbicide glyphosate as "highly efficient and environmentally safe", while there is sufficient scientific evidence that it is not. Humans exposed to the herbicide can suffer damage to the stomach, heart, kidneys, lungs and skin, and it is reported to be the third most cause of pesticide illness among agricultural workers (See: Journal of Pesticide Reform: Glyphosate Part 1 and Glyphosate Part 2). And if glyphosate is "highly effective", why does the US government press the Colombians to change to the new stonger granular herbicide tebuthiuron?

Not only opium poppy is targeted with biological agents, but the coca bush and marijuana as well. In the spring of 1998, the "Covert Action Quarterly" disclosed that the "Agricultural Research Service" (ARS) of the United States Department of Agriculture is involved in tinkering with the genetic code of a fungus to target and wipe out Andean coca and poppy crops. (See: Biological Roulette: The Drug War's Fungal Solution?, Covert Action Quarterly, Spring 1998). Scientist are "working hand in hand with the DEA, the State Department and foreign governments". One project is in the midst of a five-year study of the toxic effects of fungi on opium poppy, coca and marijuana.

All in all, research and development of biological herbicides to destroy drug crops is well under way, while there is no effective control on what is being brewed in several laboratories around the world.