Word: paraquat
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...potent and dangerous is the herbicide paraquat that in 1983 a U.S. district court banned its use on federal property. But last week it seemed that paraquat might be re-enlisted for the war on drugs. Heralding yet another offensive against homegrown marijuana, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it would consider spraying pot fields with paraquat as well as the herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate...
...Crop 1988, but critics call it "borderline insanity." Says Doug McVay, project coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: "What they're talking about here is a rape of the environment that may end up poisoning some people." The DEA subsequently clarified its announcement, saying paraquat would be sprayed only on private land...
...anti-drug campaign was coming under siege, with both its motives and its methods being questioned by elected officials and citizens' groups. Charging that the DEA was conducting "chemical warfare" against them, a coalition of 400 area residents won a temporary order in U.S. district court barring further paraquat spraying in Georgia's White County, which includes the Chattahoochee. A motion for a similar order was denied in London, Ky., near the Daniel Boone National Forest, where the DEA began spraying Friday. Republican Congressman Harold Rogers, in whose district the spraying took place, called it "a tragically silly...
...also a good way to scare the public. Paraquat can be lethal to humans if swallowed in doses as small as one-tenth of an ounce and can cause serious lung scarring if inhaled...
...marijuana smokers, who may number as many as 30 million, the DEA program raises an old dilemma: the possibility of smoking tainted weed. Farming marijuana domestically, in fact, became a growth industry only when the U.S. provided funds for Mexico to use paraquat on its fields from 1975 to 1979, and contaminated samples began showing up in smuggled pot. Though not a single case of lung poisoning has so far been traced to marijuana use from that era, U.S. health officials estimate that nearly 10,000 users annually inhaled enough paraquat to be still considered at risk...