Group Sues MSU Over Anti-Marijuana Fungus

October 14, 1999

From The Missoulian
newsdesk@missoulian.com
http://www.missoulian.com/

By Michael Moore, of the Missoulian

GROUP SUES MSU OVER ANTI-MARIJUANA FUNGUS

The Montana chapter of a national organization that favors reform of marijuana laws has sued Montana State University in a battle over documents relating to a fungus that destroys marijuana plants.

The suit is filed in Missoula District Court because the director of the Montana chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, John Masterson, lives in Missoula.

The suit stems from research done at MSU involving a fungus called fusarium oxysporum. The fungus is typically associated with tomato wilt, but varieties of fusarium have caused problems for dozens of crops. Because of its ability to cause wilt, fusarium has drawn attention from national and state governments interested in eradicating illicit drug crops - particularly marijuana, coca and opium poppies.

According to the suit, Masterson and NORML learned in March that MSU had conducted experiments with a fungus that destroyed "all plants in the cannabis family, including industrial hemp." Masterson later learned that the fungus was fusarium, which is being successfully used in Africa to fight weeds that ruin farm crops.

"We started learning about fusarium and we got concerned," Masterson said Wednesday.

Fusarium, a soil-borne fungus, is controversial. A proposal to use the fungus in Florida to eradicate marijuana caused a controversy between state officials and environmentalists, who worried that the fungus might loose its lethal wilt on other plants there.

"It is difficult, if not impossible, to control the spread of fusarium species," David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, wrote to the head of the state's drug control office.

The fungus that Florida would have used - the plan was shelved pending in-state studies - was developed at least in part by researchers at MSU.

In addition to the fusarium that cripples marijuana, MSU scientists have reportedly worked with a strain of fusarium that goes after coca plants. An MSU scientist who spoke to the Missoulian last year on condition that his name not be used said he believed that the coca-killing fungus was targeted for use in South America.

That same scientist said that he didn't believe sufficient testing had been done on the potential harm the fungus might do in ecosystems where it might be used.

Alarmed at the potential uses of fusarium, Masterson and NORML eventually contacted MSU in an effort to access any university documents relating to fusarium research.

"We were very concerned that the zealotry and lunacy associated with the drug war could be driving us to a point where we might be using a potentially dangerous fungus on American soil," Masterson said. "It seemed like a nightmare waiting to happen."

Masterson's initial request for information fell on deaf ears at MSU. "On May 24, 1999, MSU's legal counsel responded to Plaintiff's broad request for information in a single paragraph which denied all access to any information about the project held by MSU for the reason that all documents were proprietary information and trade secrets," the lawsuit states.

The university later told Masterson and NORML that contracts signed by MSU regarding the fusarium project "contained secrecy clauses that forbade MSU from divulging any information whatsoever about the project," the suit states.

After MSU's refusal to provide documents, Masterson and NORML filed suit, asking a District Court judge to order the school to make public all documents related to the fusarium experiment.

In a three-page answer to the lawsuit, MSU attorney Leslie Taylor admitted that the school has worked with fusarium, including a greenhouse experiment in Missoula in the 1980s. That experiment was conducted with the Missoula County Sheriff's Department and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

However, Taylor said funding for the fusarium research ended in December 1998 and that the university has conducted no further research. Masterson and NORML contend that the research is continuing.

MSU also claims that since initially denying information to Masterson, the university has since received permission from the federal government to release some information about the research.

That information has been provided to Masterson and NORML, Taylor states in MSU's answer. Once he got it, Masterson posted it at Montana NORML's Web site, www.montananorml.org

"We've gotten some good information, but I think there's more we need to know about what they're doing over there," Masterson said.