"Drug Lords Develop Genetically Modified Cocaine Tree"

[GreenPartyVoter]

LONDON (Reuters) - Colombian drug lords have developed a genetically modified "cocaine tree" that contains higher drug levels and is resistant to herbicides, the Financial Times newspaper said on Tuesday.

Drug producers received help from foreign scientists to develop the leafier strain of plant, which grows to 9 feet, twice the height of the normal shrub, the newspaper said, citing a Columbian police intelligence dossier.

<snip>

The tree yields eight times more cocaine than the normal shrub, and due to its size and sturdiness is more resistant to herbicides - one of Colombia's main weapons in the war on drugs.

http://reuters.iwon.com/article/20041207/2004-12-07T151442Z_01_L06567766_RTRIDST_0_ODD-COCAINE-DC.html

http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. oh yay.

Just what the world needs. Oh well, if Monsanto can modify the food we eat, why can't the cocaine cartels do the same?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Just sprinkle a little on your "pig runs meds" GM corn for flavor

http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[shadowknows69]

11. happy days are here again!!!!

What?...uh..er...um...sorry, just kidding..that was my "mid 1990's guy" talking.

if you wanna hang out, got to take her out....everyone sing along.

a true testament to the state of our economy...I could afford coke in 1996 :mad:

[hollowdweller]

2. We should legalize coca leaves and buy all they can produce

Coca in it's natural form is much milder and not much worse than coffee. Plus I always wonder if the US bought all the drugs directly off the peasants and even destroyed them it would cost less money than our expenditures at drug eradication in foreign countries or law enforcement here. Plus the money would go to the lower class impoverished who need help

[K-W]

6. but then who would the government sell crack too?

You gotta think about the repercussions here.

[noonwitch]

14. The CIA already sort of did that in the 80s through Iran/Contra

The contras were coke smugglers, who were allowed to smuggle their product into this country and target inner cities for unloading it in the form of crack.

At the same time, the "War on Drugs" was resulting in longer sentences for american citizens convicted of possession of much smaller amounts of the drug.

Hey, better to have crack heads in Detroit and LA than to have communists in Nicauragua!

[Ian David]

4. Where's the environmental impact study???

It is extremely irresponsible of the Colombian Drug Lords to release a genetically modified cocaine plant into the wild.

Have the Drug Lords even published a SINGLE peer-reviewed paper on their new Genetically Engineered Cocaine Plants?

Drug users and cokeheads need to go to Colombia and protest outside their cocaine farms, and demand that they at least give their "Frankencoke" special labeling to warn consumers, lest the genetically modified cocaine be harmful to their health.

Someone needs to teach the Colombian Drug Lords that they need to care about the health of their consumers, and about the fragile ecosystem of their country.

Just say "No" to Frankencoke!

[Rush1184]

8. Which is one reason why drugs should be legal.

I don't use coke, but if it was legal, the government could then test these so called plants, and regulate them.

[htuttle]

13. I think they determined that they weren't really GM after all

It's just selectively bred. They're calling it 'Boliviana negra'.

Wired did an interesting article about it:
The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die 
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html

[K-W]

5. When the US declares war on things.

They get solved.

[ET Awful]

7. You included two extra letters . . .

that should be SOLD, not SOLVED :)

[SheepyMcSheepster]

9. duh, people are going to keep finding ways to sale and manufacture drugs.

as long as they are illegal.

[whosinpower]

10. My radical position on drugs....

Legalize em, standardize em, regulate em...and TAX the bastards!!!!!!!!

[annabanana]

15. not so radical

pretty logical.......

[da_chimperor]

12. I'm not surprised. The drug lords have done high-tech stuff before.

I remember reading about back in the mid 90's one of the drug cartels bought a supercomputer and used it to go though the phone records of everyone in their organization and compare them to all know police phone numbers in Colombia, looking for calls from one number to another. They got all this information by bribing phone company employees. Using this method, they basically eliminated all informants in their organization. I'll see if I can find it, it was pretty amazing.

[Jack_DeLeon]

16. Nice...