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The Re-emergence of the Biological War on Drugs
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Unfortunately, the mycoherbicide scheme was only derailed temporarily. It has arisen again in recent months. While US-funded research on these biological agents dropped out of public view for a time, it was never suspended, and the investigation was completed in 2002.
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Recommendations
- UNODC should clarify its position vis-à-vis the re-emerging mycoherbicide option, re-affirming its earlier position that it is "neither implementing, or planning to implement, or discussing the possibility of implementing a bio-control project in Colombia or anywhere else in the Andes", as the agency wrote to the ombudsman in August 2000, and for the first time explicitly distance itself from any fungal option for Afghanistan. e its e, and who can decide about their estiny? ppy hose results regarding the future of e project. in e ent the se to human health and the environment alike".
- UNODC should clarify the current status of thearmarked funds provided to UNDCP by the United States government for the development of biological eradication agents. Where are those funds, what has been done so far with them, how much is left, what is planned concerning further use, and who can decide about their destiny? The results of the Uzbek/Central Asia research on the development of a fungus for opium poeradication should be made public. Both theUnited Kingdom –as the main donor – and UNODC should clarify the conclusions they have drawn from those results regardingthe future of the project.
- The UN Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND)its governing role should consider adopting a resolution to specify that UNDCP has no mandatto enter into any chemical nor biological drugs control projects. A group of countries could table a draft resolution to this end at the next session in March 2005, based for example on the variousAndean declarations that prohibit such use, and the European Parliament resolution of February 2001 stating that the European Union "must take the necessary steps to secure an end to the largescale use of chemical herbicides and previntroduction of biological agents such as Fusarium oxysporum, given the dangers of their use to human health and the environment alike.
- The Uribe government in Colombia should affirm the former Pastrana government’s rejection of a bio-control project. The Karza government in Afghanistan, as well as the international community involved in the country’s reconstruction efforts should take a lear position on the issue.