Pubdate: Thu, 07 May 2015 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Sibylla Brodzinsky US-FUNDED AIR WAR ON DRUGS TO BE GROUNDED BY CHEMICAL FEARS For more than two decades, crop dusters have buzzed the skies of Colombia showering bright green fields of coca with chemical defoliant as part of a US-funded effort to stem the country's production of cocaine. Farmers across the country have long complained that indiscriminate spraying also destroys legal crops, and that the chemical used - glyphosate - has caused everything from skin rashes and respiratory problems to diarrhoea and miscarriages. Authorities in Colombia and the US which has funded the aerial eradication programme with as much as $2bn (UKP1.3bn) since 2000 - argued that aerial spraying was the most effective and safest method of destroying coca plants - the raw material for cocaine. But after 20 years and 4m acres sprayed, Colombia is now considering an about-face. Following the finding from the World Health Organisation's cancer research arm that glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic", the country's health minister last week issued a recommendation that the government stop using it in its aerial spraying programme. A decision on the recommendation is expected to be made at a meeting on 14 May of the National Narcotics Council, which sets Colombia's drug policy. "It would be unacceptable, even from an ethical standpoint, to have this evidence on the table and not accept it," said the health minister, Alejandro Gaviria, a member of the council. The US, which made the spraying programme an axis of its drug policy in Colombia, has staunchly defended use of the chemical, which is marketed by Monsanto under the name RoundUp. "Colombia is a sovereign country and it must do what reflects its national interest, but they should take a serious look at the scientific evidence," said William Brownfield, US assistant secretary of state for counter-narcotics, and a former ambassador to Colombia. "There is not one single example of a person who has suffered damage from glyphosate in Colombia in the past 20 or 21 years," he told Caracol Radio. The looming possibility of an end to defoliant spraying appears to have prompted the White House to bring forward publication of its annual report on coca cultivation in Colombia. The figures released on Monday showed a sharp rise last year after six straight years of steady or dropping production. The land under coca cultivation in 2014 was up 39% to 112,000 hectares, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Potential cocaine production jumped 32% to 245 tonnes. One State Department official suggested that the 2014 coca numbers would convince Colombian officials that cutting the spraying programme would be a mistake. Under pressure from the US, Colombia began allowing the large-scale coca spraying programme in 1994. To date it has sprayed more than 4m acres, an area slightly larger than the US state of Connecticut. It is the only country where coca is grown that allows aerial spraying, in part because its half-century-old internal conflict with leftist rebels prevents access to many remote areas. But Colombia's justice minister, Yesid Reyes, has said the Colombian government can not endanger its citizens. "If a programme like the eradication of illegal crops through aerial spraying has the possibility of harming the health of Colombians, the state has the obligation to protect its citizens," said Reyes, who holds a seat on the narcotics council. Other council members disagree: the government inspector general, Alejandro Ordonez, warned that ending the spray programme would play into the hands of leftwing Farc rebels who reap huge profits from the drug trade. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom