Not since the movie "Reefer Madness," with its absurdly exaggerated fear-mongering about marijuana, has the War on Drugs offered such a belly laugh. Now, courtesy of Florida's new drug czar comes "Killer Fungus Touted to Eradicate State Pot Crop!" Fresh from Washington, D.C., Jim McDonough is putting down roots in Tallahassee. This pusher of fungal fatuity is lobbying to introduce an invasive plant, a "mycoherbicide," to Florida. When the idea was challenged, McDonough wrote a memo blasting the state-employed scientists who caution against any such fungus fiasco. [continues 754 words]
Not since the movie Reefer Madness, with its absurdly exaggerated fear-mongering about marijuana, has the War on Drugs offered such a belly laugh. Now, courtesy of Florida's new drug czar comes "Killer Fungus Touted to Eradicate State Pot Crop!" Fresh from Washington, D.C., Jim McDonough is putting down roots in Tallahassee. This pusher of fungal fatuity is lobbying to introduce an invasive plant, a "mycoherbicide" to Florida. Will the wonders of biotechnology never cease? "Men have become the tools of their tools," Henry David Thoreau wrote a century ago. To which I might add, "and pray let us pry the tools from the fools." [continues 904 words]