Elsa Nivia and Judith Gips.
The Global Pesticide Campaigner, February 1993. PANNA.
Drug Control and
Herbicide Spraying in Columbia by Elsa Nivia and Judith Gips
A national plan to spray the herbicide glyphosate aerially to eradicate illegal opium cultivation has generated strong concerns among Colombian citizens. Although aerial herbicide spraying to destroy drug crops is not new to Colombia, this is one of the first drug control programs in
the country to target opium rather than the more widely grown drug plants, marijuana and coca.
Colombians concerned about the health and environmental dangers posed by aerial spraying for drug eradication have spoken out against such programs in the past. In 1981, when the U.S. Congress approved $37.7 million for marijuana eradication out of Mexico, the U.S. also pressured the Colombian government to adopt an eradication program. In response to strong public protest over the risks posed by aerial spraying, the government formed a National Advisory Committee on Pesticides to study the risks.
Still, the government approved glyphosate application
in 1984, following the assassination of Justice Minister Lara Bonilla. Statistics on drug eradication programs are not easily obtained in Colombia, but it is estimated that in that year, Colombia eradicated one-third of its marijuana crop
with aerial application. It is not clear whether both glyphosate and paraquat were sprayed, or in what amounts (the government says only glyphosate was used, but other sources claim paraquat was used).
Coca cultivation in Colombia accelerated significantly in the 1970s and 1980s, with an increase in North American demand for refined cocaine products. Coca in leaf form has been used by peoples of the Andean region for thousands of years. It has ceremonial and medicinal uses considered integral to the daily lives of many indigenous peoples of the Andes. (The refined drug cocaine is used and abused principally in the industrialized countries of North America and western Europe.)
In contrast to the long history of coca in the Andes, the opium poppy has only been cultivated in Colombia in the past 15 years. Opium is now grown in 12 Colombian provinces, primarily in the Andean zone. Virtually all the opium grown in Colombia is destined for foreign markets. There appears to be little consumption of heroin and other opiates within the country, partly due to their high cost.
It is not known how much opium is cultivated or processed in Colombia at present. Compared to the amounts of coca and marijuana grown for foreign sale, opium is not produced on a large scale. However, eradication plans under Colombia's National Directorate of Narcotics include the
spraying of glyphosate to eliminate opium plants as well as coca and marijuana crops. Manual removal of the plants has been advanced as an alternative, along with a plan to provide growers with agricultural credit and technical assistance to produce other crops. Although this is a valid alternative as defined by the Directorate's guidance documents, they endorse herbicide spraying as the most effective tactic to achieve their goals.
To control "possible negative effects," the Directorate of Narcotics calls for an environmental audit, to give directives on "the most effective ways to spray" and to "analyze the impact of glyphosate on the ecosystem to determine the course of future actions." Groups and individuals within Colombia, and some international private voluntary organizations, have expressed serious concerns about the health and environmental consequences of glyphosate spraying. A prior glyphosate-spraying plan for marijuana and coca eradication was halted in 1986 when the Ministry of Health noted damage to coffee, cacao, and other harvests and possible adverse effects on human health. Aerial herbicide spraying, because it disperses the herbicide broadly and destroys many types of crop and wild plants, can have a drastic impact on agriculture, rural peoples, and wildlife.
Nonetheless, the plans for aerial eradication with glyphosate continue; the environmental audit team supervised the spraying of 1,243 hectares in the province of Cauca and 3,258 hectares in the province of Tolima between March and June of 1992, with aerial applications scheduled in 10 other Colombian provinces.
Reports from other countries where aerial spraying
has been used in anti-drug programs are not encouraging. 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 tomato, bean, corn, and coffee crops. Ironically, destroying crop plants with aerial spraying can
make it even harder for rural people to earn a living without cultivating drug plants. In Southeast Asia, opium spraying programs have led to long-term, debilitating illnesses in villagers, livestock wastage, and crop failures. Human rights abuses are commonly linked with the police powers needed to effect large-scale spray operations, in the Andean region as well as in Central America and Asia.
Even if one considers only the narrow goal of
reducing the supply of drug plants, eradication programs thus far have been unsuccessful. U.S. General Accounting Office reports on Mexico, Central America, Southeast and South Asia, and the Andean Region indicate that production and export of plant drugs have increased, often significantly, since eradication programs began. The complex social and economic problems associated with the international trade in illegal drugs are
not appropriately addressed by the indiscriminate spraying of people, agriculture, wildlife, soil, and water with toxic substances.
Elsa Nivia is PAN Regional Coordinator for Latin America, and Judith Gips is Information Associate with the PAN North America Regional Center (both addresses are on the back
cover).
The GLOBAL PESTICIDE
CAMPAIGNER is a quarterly publication of the Pesticide Action Network North America Regional Center
(PANNA). PAN is an international coalition of citizens'
groups and individuals who oppose the misuse of pesticides and support reliance on safe,
sustainable pest control methods. PANNA, 116 New Montgomery Street #810, San
Francisco, CA 94105 USA. Phone 415 541 9140. Fax 415 541 9253. Internet E-Mail: panna@igc.apc.org. For more
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