Word: paraquat
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...business bloomed in the late 1970s after the Nixon Administration pressured Mexico to spray its grass crop with paraquat, a potent weed killer. U.S. smokers, frightened of potential lung damage from tainted Mexican grass, turned to growing their own. That reliance on the domestic weed was further heightened when the DEA cracked down on the smuggling of Colombian marijuana into the U.S. Today, though many growers cultivate small quantities of pot strictly for their own or friends' use, 100,000 or so, according to NORML, the pro-pot lobby group, are commercial growers. They supply about...
Officials admit that they are managing to seize only 5% to 10% of the domestic crop at best. The DEA contends that enforcement could become more efficient if the newly discovered marijuana fields were to be sprayed with paraquat. The state of Florida, in apparent agreement, has announced that it will spray some fields with the herb killer. The Florida plan has prompted critical editorials in local newspapers as well as a lawsuit from NORML. In addition, the Chevron Chemical Co., a distributor of paraquat, has fired off a warning letter to the U.S. Department of Justice...
...Iraq, which have picked up where Turkey left off. But Peru, a major supplier of the coca used in cocaine, would be open to U.S. suasion. So would Colombia and other Latin American countries that became major marijuana producers after the U.S. subsidized Mexico to destroy its fields with paraquat...
...paraquat to eradicate marijuana crops remains a top priority of the DEA, even though the public is less concerned about pot than it is about hard drugs. The spraying in Mexico became a cause celebre after traces of the toxic chemical were found in pot smuggled into the U.S. When smoked in heavy doses, the tainted weed caused vomiting, hemorrhaging and, in a few cases, irreversible lung damage. Republican Senator Charles Percy's 1978 amendment to the Foreign Assistance Authorization Act prohibited the U.S. from providing money or materials to foreign countries for paraquat spraying. House and Senate committees...
Colombia, like other drug-producing countries, is not about to kill off its lucrative marijuana crops until the U.S. sprays its own fields. The DEA is quietly planning a paraquat program that would involve Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Conspicuous by their absence on this list are California, Oregon and Hawaii, the top marijuana producers. The DEA fears political fallout in the two Western states and rules out the islands because of logistical problems. If the DEA gets its way, the first state to be sprayed will be Florida. Although not a leading marijuana grower, Florida...