SUBSCRIBE TODAY!!!

According to the Sunday Times, Britain's largest Sunday newspaper, a joint scientific effort is underway in Uzbekistan which has developed a mutant fungus which attacks opium poppies, signaling the beginning of a campaign of biological warfare next year.  The project, which involves both British and American intelligence agencies, is being carried out at Uzbekistan's state genetics institute, which was formerly used to develop and manufacture germ agents for the destruction of food crops of Soviet enemies.  The Times reports that some of the 30 researchers who are working on the project are veterans of secret Soviet biological weapons programs.

The mutated fungus, a strain of a tomato-eating variety called Fusarium Oxysporum, is said to be advantageous over chemical herbicides because it is self-replicating, and is transferred via airborne spores from dying plants.  According to the Sunday Times, the deal with the government of Uzbekistan was brokered by senior staff of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), but some U.N. officials are concerned that use of the fungus in a country like Afghanistan (where the majority of British heroin originates) will open the West to charges from Islamic countries of waging biological warfare.  Such charges could result in a strengthening of ties between fundamentalist and moderate Islamic states.

Fusarium is well-known in the U.S. where farmers in Florida and Georgia have had crops destroyed by a virulent mutation called "Race 3", which has proven resistant to even the strongest fungicides.  In other parts of the world, Fusarium fungi have been responsible for the destruction of watermelons, chickpeas, basil, bananas, and numerous other crops.  Any of the fungi's variations is capable of lying dormant in soil for years waiting for a host plant.

	Please make a generous donation to support Drug War Chronicle in 2007!

PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Out from the Shadows HEA Drug Provision Drug War Chronicle Perry Fund DRCNet en Español Speakeasy Blogs About Us Home Why Legalization? NJ Racial Profiling Archive Subscribe Donate DRCNet em Português Latest News Drug Library Search special friends links: SSDP - Flex Your Rights - IAL - Drug War Facts StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 [email protected]