Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) Action Network Alert: Congress to Vote on Poisoning People

From our friends at Drug Policy Alliance: Congress to Vote on Poisoning People This Week Earlier this year we warned you about a bill in Congress that would revive controversial research on the use of toxic, mold-like fungi called mycoherbicides to kill illicit drug crops in other countries. This provision could unleash an environmental disaster of monumental proportions. But Congressman Mark Souder and Senators Hatch and Biden are rushing it to the House and Senate floors this week. Here are three things you can do: 1) Call your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative today or tomorrow. If you don't know who they are, simply call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give them your address. They'll connect you directly with their offices. You can also look them up online at the Senate website and the House website. When you get a staffer on the phone, politely say something like: "My name is [your name] and I live in [your city]. I'm calling to urge [the Senator or Representative] to oppose the ONDCP Reauthorization bill if it comes to the floor this week, especially its mycoherbicide provision. Please let me know how [the Senator/Representative] votes." If they ask, the mycoherbicide section is Section 1111. The bill being brought to the floor is a combination of a House and Senate bill, so it doesn't have a bill number yet. It will be brought to the Senate floor under a unanimous consent agreement and to the House floor under suspension of the rules--both of which limit debate. 2) Phone calls are the most effective way of stopping this bill. But if you don't feel comfortable making calls or you don't have the time, we urge you to fax or e-mail your elected officials instead. Contact your two Senators through the Senate website and your one Representative through the House website. 3) Please forward this alert to everyone you know. Unless thousands of Americans contact Congress, this bill could pass by the end of this week. Sincerely, Bill Piper Drug Policy Alliance Network More Information Mycoherbicides have already been extensively studied over the last thirty years--and the results make it clear that they are not an option for controlling crops of coca or opium poppies. They attack indiscriminately, destroying fruit and vegetable crops, and sickening animals and humans as well. The toxins mycoherbicides produce contaminate soil for years, so that nothing can grow where they have been. Mycoherbicides are so destructive that governments have even stockpiled them as weapons! Incredibly, the proposal now before Congress advocates using mycoherbicides in "field studies" in countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan--something the world would certainly see as an act of biological warfare. Office of National Drug Control Policy head John Walters spoke out against further mycoherbicide research last year, but this terrible proposal is now part of the ONDCP Reauthorization Act. Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this act, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall submit to the Congress a report that includes a plan to conduct, on an expedited basis, a scientific study of the use of mycoherbicide as a means of illicit drug crop elimination by an appropriate Government scientific research entity, include a complete and thorough scientific peer review. The study shall include an evaluation of the likely human health and environmental impacts of mycoherbicides derived from fungus naturally existing in the soil. Contact the Drug Policy Alliance Network: Drug Policy Alliance Network 70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor New York, NY 10018