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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,529
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 Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare
#6346712 - 12/08/06 12:55 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare
December 7, 2006 - Texas Tea Pad
Congress will soon vote on whether to revive controversial research on the use of toxic, mold-like fungi called mycoherbicides to kill illicit drug crops in other countries.
This provision could unleash an environmental disaster of monumental proportions. But Congressman Mark Souder and Senators Hatch and Biden are rushing it to the House and Senate floors this week.
The bill being brought to the floor is a combination of a House and Senate bill, so it doesn't have a bill number yet. It will be brought to the Senate floor under a unanimous consent agreement and to the House floor under suspension of the rules--both of which limit debate.
Mycoherbicides have already been extensively studied over the last thirty years - and the results make it clear that they are not an option for controlling crops of coca or opium poppies. They attack indiscriminately, destroying fruit and vegetable crops, and sickening animals and humans as well. The toxins mycoherbicides produce contaminate soil for years, so that nothing can grow where they have been. Mycoherbicides are so destructive that governments have even stockpiled them as weapons!
Incredibly, the proposal now before Congress advocates using mycoherbicides in "field studies" in countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan - something the world would certainly see as an act of biological warfare.
Office of National Drug Control Policy head John Walters spoke out against further mycoherbicide research last year, but this terrible proposal is now part of the ONDCP Reauthorization Act.
For more information on mycoherbicides, read the recent report commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, "Repeating Mistakes of the Past: Another Mycoherbicide Research Bill".
Here's the full text of the mycoherbicide provision in the ONDCP Reauthorization Act:
Sec. 1111 Requirement for Scientific Study of Mycoherbicide in Illicit Drug Crop Eradication
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this act, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall submit to the Congress a report that includes a plan to conduct, on an expedited basis, a scientific study of the use of mycoherbicide as a means of illicit drug crop elimination by an appropriate Government scientific research entity, include a complete and thorough scientific peer review. The study shall include an evaluation of the likely human health and environmental impacts of mycoherbicides derived from fungus naturally existing in the soil.
__________See also: Action Alert: Congress to Vote on Poisoning People This Week-------------------- 
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 mushboy
mush-o-holic
 
Registered: 04/24/05
Posts: 398
Loc: mushland
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: veggie]
#6346737 - 12/08/06 01:04 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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you got to be shitting me!
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K1wI
Tortilla Army
Registered: 11/11/06
Posts: 141
Loc: The Desert
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: mushboy]
#6346955 - 12/08/06 03:41 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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I had a friend tell me about government top-secret fungi a long long time ago and I thought he was fucking with me. What the hell man, using nature as a weapon is sort of fucked up. Not to mention that this guy wants to use this mean fungi on other nations, on it's own that is really fucked up.
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"It's all bla bla bla... and then nothing more."
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ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 2,962
Last seen: 1 day, 8 hours
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: K1wI]
#6347114 - 12/08/06 06:20 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Second amendment time guys... you've got those guns for a reason...
If you want to have the responsibility of the constitution, you'd better fulfill your responsibility to the constitution...
Doesn't get much more tyrannous than bio warfare after all.
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Know your self.
Know your substance.
Know your source.
Stop knowing what you are and realize what you could be.
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fastfred
Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 4,366
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: ExplosiveMango]
#6349932 - 12/09/06 01:39 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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They can study it all they want, it's never going to be used. There is an international treaty against biological weapons and it explicitly covers bioweapons that target crops. It's just a dead end pork barrel project.
-FF
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myst0nia
Stranger
Registered: 12/09/06
Posts: 8
Loc: Austin, Texas
Last seen: 1 year, 11 months
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 Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: fastfred]
#6355924 - 12/10/06 09:45 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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That makes sense, fred, hope you're right. Do you have any hard evidence to that effect?
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~It's all fine on Cloud 9~
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wilshire
free radical
Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,407
Loc: SE PA
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: veggie]
#6355984 - 12/10/06 10:02 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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my mycology/plant-pathology professor refers to this as a "massively bad idea". fortunately it isn't going to happen, for the reasons stated.
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myst0nia
Stranger
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 Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: wilshire]
#6374806 - 12/15/06 05:34 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Okay, given the Congress we have these days, the idea that this is just about buying some propaganda makes sense; but does anyone have any details in this particular case?
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~It's all fine on Cloud 9~
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 10,432
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: myst0nia]
#6374824 - 12/15/06 05:43 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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The DPA got that part of the ONDCP Reauthorization Act amended. It will only be allowed in laboratory settings for the time being.
From their Action Network e-mail:
Quote:
First, the section of the legislation we were most concerned about, which would have authorized the testing of dangerous mycoherbicides on illicit drug crops in Latin America, was significantly reformed. The final provision limits the testing of mycoherbicides to U.S. laboratories. This is a huge victory because it means the people and environment of Latin America will be protected. We have you to thank for this reform because so many of you called Congress asking for the provision to be changed
And some more info (in PDF form) from the DPA:
Here
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myst0nia
Stranger
Registered: 12/09/06
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: DNKYD]
#6374838 - 12/15/06 05:49 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Great! I hadn't heard that. Thanks for letting me know.
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~It's all fine on Cloud 9~
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SuchSmartMonkeys
mycologicallydrivenindividual
Registered: 10/26/05
Posts: 537
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: fastfred]
#6375202 - 12/15/06 08:20 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
fastfred said:
They can study it all they want, it's never going to be used. There is an international treaty against biological weapons and it explicitly covers bioweapons that target crops. It's just a dead end pork barrel project.
-FF
the thing about it, is if there's no reason or now way for us to use it, then why even fuck with it? guaranteed they will use it....
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cricket
Lord Cricket
Registered: 08/29/03
Posts: 755
Loc: in my house, in front of ...
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Re: Mycoherbicides -- US contemplates biological warfare [Re: myst0nia]
#6375252 - 12/15/06 08:43 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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They have been talking about this for years. I can't imagine it will ever happen. Mexico is still pissed about finding genes from our G.M. grains sneaking across the border and getting into their pure strains.
They could never get permission to use it on pot either. With more countries growing industrial hemp it could cause too many economical problems.
Besides with the jet stream blowing Canada's HEMP pollen down into and across the U.S. and potentially around the world...
How many generations before all the marijuana grown outside is hybridized to the point of becoming HEMP?
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I tried to leave my signature but it didn't work...
By the way... Does anybody know how to get sharpie markers off of a computer screen?
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