Montana
NORML
Receives
Documents
on
Anti-Drug
Fungus
Research
8/27/99
The Montana chapter of NORML last Wednesday (8/19) received more than 150 documents from Montana State University at Bozeman related to a US Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded research project at the school that is developing mycoherbicides, or fungi, to kill marijuana and poppy plants. MSU released the documents after Montana NORML filed suit against the school under the state constitution's right-to-know clause. "The majority of it is standard federal project employee forms, you know, drug-free workplace stuff that is initialed here and there," John Masterson of Montana NORML told The Week Online. But a few of the documents are more intriguing, including faxes mentioning related research projects in Russia and Turkey, and correspondence from the USDA directing the school not to release information concerning "virulence enhancement to bio-herbicides" until the agency had determined its "commercial value and viability." Masterson said that information is "particularly interesting to us, because it points to the existence of further documents. Under the Montana State Constitution, any documents that don't violate intellectual property or personal privacy that are produced within a public entity such as Montana State University are open to the public." The documents Montana NORML received were accompanied by an assurance from MSU's counsel that more would follow, and that a settlement would be proposed. Masterson said he learned of the fungus project when a person who claimed to be a state representative in Florida called Montana NORML to warn them that "unusual research" was being conducted at MSU Bozeman. The caller was worried about a similar plan underway in Florida, and gave Masterson the names of the MSU-Bozeman researchers involved and the specific names of the fungi. A phone call to MSU-Bozeman confirmed the existence of the project. In fact, the fungi had already been tested in a greenhouse in Missoula with the assistance of the Missoula police. Masterson said Montana NORML will pursue their investigation until all appropriate documents related to the project have been released to the public. Montana NORML is posting the documents on their web site at http://www.montananorml.org. You can read about the proposed testing of anti-drug fungi in Florida in the July 23, 1999 edition of The Week Online at http://www.drcnet.org/wol/100.html#mycoherbicides. An excellent article by Jim
Hogshire examining the deployment of mycoherbicides in the drug war appeared
in Covert Action Quarterly. You can read it on the Media Awareness
Project web site at
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