May 18, 1998

To the editor,

One key fact Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs head Russ Higbie ignores when commenting on the state’s "successful" marijuana eradication program (Oklahoma police train for heroic struggle against ditchweed, May 14, 1997) is that nearly 97 percent of the 1.4 million total plants eradicated in Oklahoma every year are nothing more than "ditchweed," non-psychoactive hemp. These plants are remnants from government subsidized plots grown during World War II’s "Hemp for Victory" campaign, when Japanese conquests in Asia put much of the world’s rope-fiber supply in Axis hands. This strain of cannabis presents no threat to public safety because it contains too little THC to intoxicate users.

The Drug Enforcement Administration defines ditchweed as: "Wild, scattered marijuana plants [with] no evidence of planting, fertilizing or tending." Yet Oklahoma law enforcement agencies spent $340,000 in federal taxpayer moneys eradicating these plants in 1996, according to the 1998 Vermont State Auditor’s Report on the Domestic Eradication Suppression Program. Now, state law enforcement proposes spraying a known toxic herbicide (glyphosate aka "Round Up") from helicopters to further expand this unnecessary program.

Environmental journals have long criticized the aerial use of glyphosate in marijuana eradication efforts. A report in the February 1993 issue of Global Pesticide Campaigner called the tactic "unsuccessful" and highlighted the chemical’s potential dangers. "Reports from other countries where aerial spraying has been used in anti-drug programs are not encouraging," it states. "International health workers in Guatemala report acute poisonings in peasants living in areas near eradication spraying, while farmers in these zones have sustained serious damage to their crops."

The winter 1995 edition of the Journal of Pesticide Reform reported similar cases in the U.S. "In California, ... glyphosate was the third most commonly reported pesticide illness among agricultural workers," the journal reported. "Among landscape maintenance workers, glyphosate was the most commonly reported cause."

The author added that, "Glyphosate exposure damages or reduces the population of many animals, including beneficial insects, fish, birds, and earthworms, [and] in some cases is directly toxic." The journal also reported that aerial movement of the chemical through unwanted drift is "unavoidable."

Oklahoma’s marijuana eradication efforts are counter-productive, costly, and potentially hazardous to the health and safety of residents and the environment. The same crop so zealously eliminated by Oklahoma law enforcement is now cultivated by farmers in over 30 countries—including Canada, France, England, Germany, Japan, and Australia—for industrial purposes. Only in America do law enforcement continue to put public safety at risk and our tax dollars to waste eliminating this proven worldwide cash crop.

Sincerely,

Paul Armentano
Director of Publications and Research
The NORML Foundation
Washington, D.C.