cannabisnews.com: Editorial: Environmental Catch 22! 





Editorial: Environmental Catch 22! 
Posted by FoM on July 31, 1999 at 15:53:16 PT
July 31, 1999
Source: Toledo Blade
The road to environmental ruin may be paved with good intentions, but disastrous ends don't differentiate between good and bad.
It's not too late for Florida to avoid a potential environmental disaster, but the Environmental Protection Agency learned the hard way about defending air-cleaning ingredients added to gasoline sold in big cities. Turns out the stuff that was cleaning the air was also polluting the water.Now the EPA, which had previously promoted the use of the pollution-fighting chemical called MTBE, is backpedaling about its dubious benefits. After receiving a report detailing how easily the chemical additive dissolves in water and can contaminate tap water systems with suspected carcinogens, the agency is rushing to reverse a rule mandated by the Clean Air Act of 1990.EPA administrator Carol Browner wants Congress to withdraw the order that oil companies supplying those regions of the nation that have heavy air pollution must add the chemical to all gasoline sold so that engines run better and tailpipe pollution is reduced.A panel studying the adverse environmental effects of MTBE discovered it had seeped into local water supplies either through gas spills or underground storage tank leaks. Besides tainting the drinking water, the chemical also disrupted the beneficial work of microbes in the soil that digest natural hydrocarbons, rendering them harmless.Much to its dismay, the EPA realized what was curing one ill - namely air pollution caused by exhaust fumes - was actually creating another type of harmful pollution. California was so concerned that significant amounts of its water supply would be made unusable by MTBE that it ordered oil companies to phase out use of the chemical by 2002. The EPA granted the state special dispensation to develop its own clean air policies because smoggy Los Angeles is more polluted than the rest of the country.In weighing the advantages and disadvantages of environmental policy, the EPA's balancing act is similar to a dilemma facing Florida. The state wants to introduce a foreign, living substance into the environment - a marijuana-eating fungus - to eradicate a thriving criminal crop in the state.Florida drug czar Jim McDonough notes that 47 per cent of the marijuana seized in the United States comes from the Sunshine State and much of it is home-grown. The proposed solution is a bioherbicide, specifically engineered to attack only marijuana plants. But, like the EPA's move to stem air pollution, Florida's fungus battle plan also portends environmental problems.While the state is studying the pros and cons of using biological agents to destroy illegal narcotic plants, critics are voicing alarm about what the soil fungus could wind up destroying besides marijuana. Bill Graves, senior biologist at the University of Florida Research Center, worries about the fungus possibly mutating, with nightmarish consequences."I believe that if this fungus is unleashed for this kind of problem, it's going to create its own problems. If it isn't executed effectively, it's going to target and kill rare and endangered plants," he said.We hope Florida will scrap its latest strategy to fight the state's marijuana growers before it gains much more support.As even the EPA can attest, good intentions are not always reason enough to mess with Mother Nature.July 31, 1999© 1999, The Blade, All Rights Reserved.Silver Bullets and Alchemy - July 31, 1999http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2298.shtmlNewshawk: DdChttp://homepages.go.com/homepages/m/a/r/marthag1/ddc.htm
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 03, 1999 at 08:14:00 PT:
Pot Crock
Not since the movie Reefer Madness, with its absurdly exaggerated fear-mongering about marijuana, has the War on Drugs offered such a belly laugh. Now, courtesy of Florida's new drug czar comes "Killer Fungus Touted to Eradicate State Pot Crop!"Fresh from Washington, D.C., Jim McDonough is putting down roots in Tallahassee. This pusher of fungal fatuity is lobbying to introduce an invasive plant, a "mycoherbicide" to Florida. Will the wonders of biotechnology never cease? "Men have become the tools of their tools," Henry David Thoreau wrote a century ago. To which I might add, "and pray let us pry the tools from the fools." Talk about invasive. McDonough, in a tone of injured refinement, wrote a memo blasting the EPA's voices of reason, those state-employed scientists who caution against any such fungus fiasco. Stuffily, he declaimed: "Before we conclude that it cannot be done, let us take every opportunity to consider how it might be done safely." My, my. Let's consider:(1) No matter that "the fungus could mutate, spread and kill off everything from tomatoes to endangered plants,"as scientists at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection fear.(2) No matter that Florida already suffers from melaleuca run amok, since the government once seeded the Everglades with this Australian tree to help drain the swamp. Or that King-Kong kudzu, imported from China to control erosion, is covering Georgia and North Florida in a green shroud, (3) No matter that, according to the Audubon Society, "On public lands, an estimated 4,600 acres of native wildlife habitat are lost daily to alien plants with no natural enemies."(4) No matter that the federal government this month began regulating the discharge of ballast water from cargo ships entering all U.S. ports, fearing the environmental havoc created by the introduction of foreign species. How far the drug czar lags behind the times. A killer fungus might have earned consideration in, say, the 1950s and 1960s, when technology seemed the answer to everything. That was during the era when The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham was published. This science-fiction classic forecast the balance of power shifting from humans to the plant kingdom. Ghastly stinging plants that walk are the byproduct of government engineering undertaken in the name of national defense and capitalist supremacy. In our post-triffid world, we know way too much to even CONSIDER fungal frivolity. We know the potential of an alien plant to spread quickly, to crowd out native species, to disrupt fragile balances in nature. Not even the most accomplished scientists in the field completely understand the interactions between fungi, in the soil and the roots of plants they infect. Scientists do know that, by having a biological killer attack pot plants, we might force the maryjane to evolve strong defenses. How easy it would be to lose control of the fungus. If Florida's drug czar had been content to quietly do his job, focusing on education and things that count, we might have stayed ignorant of the existence of his superfluous bureaucratic position and its consumption of taxpayer dollars. Poor McDonough. Not only is he going to be forever famous for this godforsaken folly, but also he has forced on us the familiar sadness of a bankrupt Drug War.Thoughtful people across America, ranging from civil libertarians to chiefs of police, question the Drug War, a colossal and expensive failure that has failed to halt drug import or drug use. A stunning waste of resources, this high-profile, low-yield effort has succeeded in filling jails with young people whose nonviolent crimes have earned them decades-long or life sentences. Its continuation is "sucking positive energy out of America, exaggerating economic polarization, harming race relations, public health, our justice system, and our cities," according to Efficacy, a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization advocating, peaceful -ways to respond to social problems. Yet when it comes to marijuana, we persist in unworkable policies. McDonough's fungus folly is just the latest fear-based, coercive effort. Drugs are not a new phenomenon. Opiates were common in Europe. Tea from potent poppy plants was a staple in parts of Asia. The American Indians used tobacco and peyote sparingly, without the plague of abuse, in spiritual rituals, For most of human history, even when ready access to potent drugs existed, societies have regulated their use without fear-based policies. As America's own failed Prohibition proves, drugs (including alcohol) pose the worst problems when they are outlawed.Florida's marijuana growers are as inventive as the plant is hardy. Just 30 years ago, imported pot was the cannabis of choice, with homegrown varieties filling in only in a pinch. Government interdiction created an inconvenience for potheads, who in a burst of innovation created a superior domestic crop. Surely they will get around any new fungus problem. A quick search of the Internet shows detailed fungus-fighting data already available. Indoor gardening, for instance, is an option. Thirty years of experience have allowed cultivators to perfect techniques, in settings that range from rural barns to city office buildings, even attics. A worker doesn't even need to be on site to take advantage of a warehouse's excellent lighting to cultivate an indoor crop impossible to trace to its grower. In Florida, smalltime growers and police even seem to enjoy a little "marijuana cat-and-mouse." I know of an instance where one of those lost-in-the-'60s types planted a pot plot in the woods. One day when the happy farmer showed up to tend his plants, he found them uprooted. Left for him to find was the local narcotics agent's business card. If this were 1950, the time of birth for many baby boomers, a "hooch-icide" scheme would be frightening. Some bozo of a government official might actually approve a plan to tamper with the environment, daring the gods to hit us all with the Law of Unintended Consequences. Today the concept is funny. ------ Newshawk: John Hiram Pubdate: July 29th - Aug.4th 1999 Source: Weekly Planet (FL) Copyright: Weekly Planet Inc. 1999 Contact: letters weeklyplanet.com Address: 1310 E 9th Avenue Tampa, FL 33605 Fax: (813) 248-9999 Website: http://www.weeklyplanet.com Author: Andrea Brunais [Andrea Brunais is a novelist, commentator for Florida Public Radio and a free-lance writer.]
Pot Crock
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 02, 1999 at 18:13:56 PT:
Florida Mulls Use Of Anti-Marijuana Fungus
Florida Mulls Use Of Controversial Anti-Marijuana FungusJuly 29, 1999,Miami, FL:http://www.norml.org/   A proposal by Florida's drug czar to unleash a marijuana-eating fungus is receiving sharp criticism from environmentalists and drug law reformers.   "Florida is not a significant marijuana producing state, and has no business being a guinea pig for a potentially dangerous and unproven fungus," NORML Foundation Director Allen St. Pierre said. "It is frightening to think that in search of a quick fix, Florida's drug czar is willing to risk even greater long-term ecological and social problems."   Florida's proposed marijuana eradication plan would enlist the use of a new, marijuana-eating, soil-borne fungus, known as Fusarium oxysporum. Proponents of the program, spearheaded by state drug czar Jim McDonough, believe that the "mycoherbicide" will target marijuana and ignore other crops. Critics are uncertain.   "I believe that if this fungus is unleashed, ... it's going to create its own problems," Bill Graves, a senior biologist at the University of Florida Research Center in Homestead, told The New York Times. "If it isn't executed effectively, it's going to target rare and endangered plants."   Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Stuhs also warned of the fungus' potential dangers. "Mutagenicity [the tendency to mutate] is by far the most disturbing factor in attempting to use a Fusarium species as a bio-herbicide," he wrote in a letter to McDonough. "Mutation of the organism would not only threaten Florida's natural environment, but would also put at risk our economically vital agriculture industry."   Despite such concerns, state officials plan to begin testing the fungus at a research facility outside of Gainesville.  U.S. officials have previously used fungi to destroy coca plants in South America, but local farmers complained that it spread to banana, tangerine, and other food crops.   Federal statistics indicate that less than three percent of all marijuana seized in the U.S. is grown in Florida.http://www.norml.org/For more information, please contact:Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation   (202) 483-8751.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 02, 1999 at 09:22:57 PT:
Don't Mess With Mother Nature - She Bites Back
Pubdate: Fri, 30 July 1999 Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA) Copyright: 1999 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Contact: tgletter telegram.infi.net Website: http://www.telegram.com/index.html DON'T MESS WITH MOTHER NATURE -- SHE BITES BACK There they go again -- trying to mess with Mother Nature. The latest scheme afoot is to employ a fungus to selectively destroy much of Florida's immense, lucrative and mostly homegrown marijuana industry. Almost half of all the marijuana seized each year by drug enforcement agents nationwide is taken in the Sunshine State, so the problem is indisputable. The proposed solution, however, is not. The plan is to dust suspected growing areas with a marijuana-eating, soil-borne fungus called Fusarium oxysporum. According to the Montana-based company that developed the fungus, it is harmless to plants other than marijuana. Maybe. Then again, such experiments often have gone awry. Some environmentalists warn that organisms which behave well elsewhere often go berserk in Florida's warm, wet climate. Take the case of the dreaded kudzu, a Chinese vine that has run rampant across the South since being introduced in the 1920s to thwart soil erosion. In Florida it grows a foot a day, swallowing acres of roadside and even houses. Then there are the melaleuca trees, imported decades ago to help drain the Everglades. Now they have infested hundreds of thousands of acres. If the proposed fungus were to mutate, it could cause damage to prime crops such as tomatoes, peppers and corn -- mainstays of Florida's thriving agricultural economy. At this point, state officials appear to be taking a cautious course, with much extended testing planned before any decisions are made about deployment. That is a wise course. Mother Nature has a way of playing nasty tricks on overreaching humans.URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n792.a04.html
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 31, 1999 at 17:03:28 PT:
Fusarium Wilt
Date: July 29, 1999 07:02 PMFrom: landmanSubject: Fusarium Wilthttp://www.tampabay.com/Fusarium fungus might have promise against marijuana, but what else will it affect? Do we really want to release large quantities of a naturally occurring pest in Florida's bountiful fields and farms. The following description of the fusarium fungus was snipped off the net:"Fusarium oxysporum is a fungus that causes fusarium wilt. Fusarium wilt progresses over several months. The fungus enters roots. Fusarium oxysporum may persist in soil for several years. Soil moisture does not affect the severity of the disease, but high soil temperatures favor infection.Plants Attacked: Tomatoes, Asparagus, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumbers, Melons, Okra, Onions, Peas, Pepper, Radishes, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Turnips and Flowers.Damage: First lower leaves turn yellow, wilt and die. Then upper leaves and the whole plant dies. Plants may produce a crop, but it is deformed and tasteless. Dark streaks may be visible when you scrape or cut the stems of affected plants.SolutionsPhysical Control: Clean up and destroy infected plants and debris right away. Use only plants that are resistant to Fusarium Wilt. Proper fertilizing and watering may help.Chemical Control: No chemical control domestically. Fumigation to kill the spores in the soil can be done commercially. "Doesn't sound all that safe or intelligent to me.(Sure...we'll test it safely first...trust me.)
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