Drug Lords Develop Genetically Modified Cocaine Tree

[Champ]

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.

"In their search for greater profits, drug-traffickers appear to have entered the world of genetically-modified crops," the dossier was quoted as saying.

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://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=3&u=/nm/20041207/od_nm/cocaine_dc

[StopTheMorans]

1. "The tree yields eight times more cocaine than the normal shrub"

wow, considering shrub's past and his "indiscretions" in the '70s, that's a lot of cocaine...

[The Doctor.]

2. I think I'll take up horticulture...n/t

[thoughtanarchist]

3. and the leaves of this tree Never. Stop. Rustling. n/t

[Feathered Fish]

4. Finally!

God, maybe the prices will come down now!
:)

[Wapsie B]

5. The CIA is probably

already on this one. Coke bound for an inner city near you.

[htuttle]

6. I think this is partially incorrect

I've read quite a bit about this over the last year.

The new strain of 'Super Coca' isn't genetically modified, per se (like in a lab with a laser), but has been bred the same way farmers have for centuries.

At first they thought it was GM, because it had a resistance to herbicide. Monsanto sells a few GM food crops that are resistant to herbicide, so they initially assumed they'd stolen the resistance gene.

However, after studying a sample, I read that they'd determined that the new Super Coca was simply bred to be herbicide resistant, not Genetically Modified in a lab.

Wish I could remember where I read this -- it was a a very interesting article.

[htuttle]

8. Found the other article I was thinking of

The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die 
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html

I've got 23 ziplock bags filled with coca leaves laid out on the rickety table in front of me. It's been seven hours since the leaves were picked, and they're already secreting the raw alkaloid that gives cocaine its kick. The smell is pungently woody, but that may just be the mold growing on the walls of this dingy hotel room in the southern Colombian jungle. Somewhere down the hall, a woman is moaning with increasing urgency. I've barricaded the door in case the paramilitaries arrive.

The guy knows how to write, too...

[Radical Activist]

7. Better Living Through Science

wow