Brussels -- EU scientists agreed on Friday to legalize the controversial herbicide paraquat, to the fury of environmentalists who insist the chemical is acutely toxic for both humans and animals.
"There was a vote and it was passed, so the European Commission can now adopt it (as a regulation). The Nordic states voted against...but there will be a lot of conditions," said an official at the EU's executive Commission.
Paraquat became widely known when it was sprayed on Latin American marijuana fields in the 1970s as a defoliant. It is currently authorized as a weedkiller in 10 EU member states but Friday's ruling makes its use legal across the bloc.
Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Austria -- all of which have banned paraquat for many years -- voted against the proposal, and were joined by Luxembourg. The Netherlands abstained.
Critics say it is impossible to handle paraquat safely and claim the chemical harms the lungs, skin and eyes of workers handling it. Paraquat producers deny these charges.
It was not immediately clear what kind of conditions would be attached to using and selling paraquat, but Commission officials have previously said the herbicide is unlikely to be put on sale to the general public.
The EU's debate over paraquat has been running for years, with a vote on bloc-wide legalization postponed four times due to bitter differences between the 15 member states.
Environmentalists were outraged by the decision as they have long campaigned for paraquat's total removal from EU markets.
"The...approval of paraquat for the EU-wide marketing is irresponsible," said John Hontelez, secretary-general of the European Environmental Bureau lobby group.
"We urgently need a general reform of Europe's chemical policy, which prevents serious or long-term damage to human health and environment by forcing the substitution of such unacceptable chemicals with safer alternatives."
In a statement co-signed by Friends of the Earth and Pesticides Action Network Europe, Hontelez said paraquat's legalization would lead to more use of the chemical and perhaps bring it back onto markets of countries where it was now banned.
EU Scientists Legalize Controversial Herbicide
Source: Reuters October 03, 2003
Related Articles & Web Sites
Friends of the Earth
Pesticides Action Network Europe
Marijuana Users Warned To Steer Clear Of Red Pot
How Safe Are Your Illegal Drugs?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH),
Facts About Paraquat
The extent of poisoning caused by paraquat depends on the amount, route, and duration of exposure and the person’s condition of health at the time of the exposure. Paraquat causes direct damage when it comes into contact with the lining of the mouth, stomach, or intestines. After paraquat enters the body, it is distributed to all areas of the body. Toxic chemical reactions occur throughout many parts of the body, primarily the lungs, liver, and kidneys. The actual mechanism by which paraquat damages the lungs is not known.
Paraquat was first produced for commercial purposes in 1961. Worldwide, paraquat is still one of the most commonly used herbicides. In the United States, due to its toxicity, paraquat is available for use only by commercially licensed users.
If a person survives the toxic effects of paraquat poisoning, long-term lung damage (scarring) is highly likely. Other long-term effects may also occur, including kidney failure, heart failure, and esophageal strictures (scarring of the swallowing tube that makes it hard for a person to swallow). People with high-dose exposure to paraquat are not likely to survive.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Paraquat is a weed killer once promoted by the United States for use in Mexico to destroy marijuana plants. Research found that this herbicide was dangerous both to workers who applied it to the plants and to people who smoked the marijuana harvested from them.
Paraquat is now banned in the United States, although it is still legal for some uses in Mexico. As most marijuana smoked in the U.S. is now domestically grown, the risk of paraquat lung to American marijuana smokers is minimal.
Paraquat may cause lung damage by inhalation, it may cause esophageal erosions or ulcers from ingestion and absorption through the gut, or it can cause skin breakdown through contact with intact skin.
Severe ingestion of Paraquat can rapidly cause death from respiratory failure due to a form of proliferative alveolitis, or inflammation of the air spaces in the lungs. This impairs oxygen transport to the blood and may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Unsuitable for use – Profile of paraquat
Poison Pot By Joel Miller
Source: WorldNetDaily
As the April 17, 1978, issue of Inquiry magazine pointed out, some of this nastiness no doubt came home to roost. It was estimated at the time that more than 50 percent of cannabis in the rolled paper and bongs of America's estimated 15 million marijuana smokers came from Mexico. In an all-new sort of Montezuma's revenge, the principal poison used in Mexico's herbicidal cocktail was paraquat, which, when ingested, causes irreversible lung damage.
Audubon Society: Legalize It!
Hemp History in Audubon
A Brief Summary of the Uses of Hemp
Audubon: High on Hemp: Ditchweed Digs In
Popular Mechanics 1938
Fibre Plants-Hemp Childrens Encyclopedia 1909;pp.321-324
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground ... want the rain without thunder and lightning, The struggle may be a moral one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."
-Frederick Douglass, 1857
POT PROHIBITION.? JUST SAY. NORML
MT NORML Files Suit On Killer Fungus Research!
Fungus Causes More Problems Than It Solves!
Officials in Florida are planning to risk the future of the state's agricultural economy in the name of eradicating marijuana. Jim McDonough, the recently appointed head of Florida's Office of Drug Control, is planning to spread a fungus genetically engineered to kill marijuana over areas where the plant is suspected of being grown. Is marijuana such a threat to the nation that it justifies recklessly interfering with nature?
The only rational answer to this question, regardless of one's personal opinions about marijuana, must be a resounding "no." Of course, Florida anti-drug officials deny that their plans are reckless at all and insist that the fungus will be rigorously tested before it is unleashed - but history and common sense say otherwise.
Hazard Magazine
Food and farm worker campaigns
Information in the international food and farm union federation IUF's global pesticides campaign, including details of Latin American initiatives; and information on the IUF's campaign for internationally applied health and safety standards in the farm sector. IUF campaigns
Marijuana Spraying Kills One, Sickens Hundreds, Mexican Villagers Report 8/11/00
In stories picked up by New Mexico State University's Frontera NorteSur border news service ( nmsu.edu/~frontera ), El Diario (Ciudad Juarez) and El Norte (Monterrey) reported that the Mexican government's spraying of an alleged marijuana field in the state of Chihuahua killed one child and sickened 300 villagers.
A delegation from the remote Tarahumara indigenous village of Chorowi (a 24-hour walk from the nearest road, according to map notations) came down from the mountains to file a complaint about the incident with the Chihuahua State Human Rights Office (CEDH) on July 31st, although the incident supposedly occurred on July 12th.
Villagers told the human rights office that agents of the Federal Judicial Police, the dreaded "federales," sprayed an herbicide believed to be paraquat on a marijuana field.
Agent Orange, All Over Again
Genetic fungus
MT NORML Files Suit On Killer Fungus Research!
WoD on the Environment
Hemp Food Links
Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974 (Excerpts)
The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys
Official Corruption: Carlton Turner
In all the research this author has done about the misapplication of public funds and trusts, nothing, it seems, compares with the either totally ignorant or willful manslaughter of fellow Americans by the bureaucrats and politicians of the following story:
One Man & His Drug Scams
Phony Paraquat Kits
During the 1978 Mexican marijuana paraquat scare, and while still a private citizen working for the state of Mississippi marijuana farm, this same Carlton Turner called High Times magazine to advertise a paraquat tester. Unknown to Turner, High Times was not accepting ads for any paraquat testers because all evidence showed the testers didn't work.
Turner apparently never thought High Times was ethical enough to check the contraption out. He assumed they would just take the ad money and run print the ad and make Turner rich.
He didn't care if some kid died or was bilked out of money believing in his bogus paraquat test kit.
After this attempted mail fraud, this man became President Reagan's national drug czar in 1981, recommended by George Bush and Nancy Reagan.
Poisoning Pot Smokers
In August and September, 1983, Turner went on national television to justify the illegal marijuana spraying (by plane) of paraquat in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee by the DEA. He said it would teach a lesson to any kid who died from paraquat-poisoned pot. Turner was forced to resign after announcing his conclusions in public that marijuana caused homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and, therefore, AIDS.
A Wanton Disregard For Life
Turner even said that he doesn't even care if hundreds of kids die from smoking pot the federal government has deliberately sprayed with paraquat.
Then at the April 25, 1985, PRIDE conference in Atlanta, Georgia, with Nancy Reagan and 16 foreign First Ladies in attendance (including Imelda Marcos), Turner called for the death penalty for drug dealers.
Turner was, after all, Reagan's, Bush's, and the pharmaceutical companies' own hired gun, who saw his entire mission as not against heroin, PCP, or cocaine, but to wipe out pot and jazz/rock music
Urine Testing Company
After his resignation, Turner joined with Robert DuPont and former head of NIDA, Peter Bensinger, to corner the market on urine testing. They contracted as advisors to 250 of the largest corporations to develop drug diversion, detection, and urine testing programs. After his resignation, Turner joined with Robert L. DuPont and former head of NIDA, Peter Bensinger to corner the market on urine testing.
Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty.
Just as G. Gordon Liddy went into high-tech corporate security after his disgrace, Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.
Meet the New Czar Same as The Old Czars
Pisstasters linx * Poster
PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS * Primary Reasons
Philanthropy Roundtable John Pee Walters - President
ACS - Division of Analytical Chemistry - DAC Awards No award given) - John P. Walters 1980?
America’s New Drug Pushers/John Pee Walters
Hemp vs Dioxins * Ganja/hemp lnfolinx * Hemp vs Cotton
Fear in the fields: How hazardous wastes become fertilizer
History of Fraud and Deception Involving ASPARTAME
Supreme Court Collusion in ASPARTAME Coverup (Excerpts)
Clarence Thomas Former Monsanto Lawyer refused to consider arguments that the FDA had not followed proper procedures in approving aspartame, despite arguments that the product
“may cause brain damage.”
ASPARTAME/NutraSweet (L-aspartyl L-phenylalinine methyl ester)
Today we have Nutra-Sweet", which is widely used in a plethora of consumables, despite a demonstrated neurological reaction in some people. In February 1996, it was decided to also use the product name "Benevia". It is estimated that as many as 20,000,000 people cannot metabolize phenylalimine, and this inability is genetically inherited by children. The inability to metabolize phenylalinine can lead to mental retardation in children. This means a risk of retardation for millions of children. A multi-billion dollar enterprise, this substance is said to be "refined" from “natural”substances. Like other "refined" substances, it represents a health threat to the general public. No long term studies have been performed to evaluate the physiological effects of this substance, yet the public is lead to believe it is absolutely safe. Technically, the chemical is called aspartame, and it was once on a Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals submitted to Congress.
History of Fraud and Deception Involving ASPARTAME
Aspartame is produced by G.D. Searle Company, founded in 1888 and located in Skokie, Illinois. Searle is now owned by others. (thats Monsanto, which is under UpJohn Pharmaceuticals. One big happy fascist family.) It is about 200 times sweeter than the refined sugar that it is meant to replace, and it is known to erode intelligence and affect short-term memory. It is essentially a chemical weapon designed to impact populations en masse. It is an rDNA derivative made from two amino acids, L-phenylalanine, L-aspartic acid and methanol. Originally discovered
during a search for an ulcer drug in 1966, it was “approved” by the FDA in 1974 as a “food additive”. Approval was followed by a retraction based on demonstrated public concern over the fact that the substance produced brain tumors in rats. According to the 1974 FDA task force set up to examine aspartame and G.D.Searle
In 1976, an FDA “task force” brought into question all of G.D. Searle’s aspartame testing procedures conducted between 1967 and 1975. The final FDA report noted faulty and fraudulent product testing, knowingly misrepresented product testing, knowlingly misrepresented findings, and instances of irrelevant animal research. In other word, illegal criminal activity. Understandably scared, Searle officials sought to suppress the FDA findings and obstruct justice. They turned to Nixon and Ford administration operative Donald Rumsfeld and elected him “chairman of the Searle organization.” In 1977, the Wall Street Journal detailed the fact that Rumsfeld made efforts to “mend fences” by asking “what Searle could do” in the face of the changes. Also in 1977, Dr. Adrian Gross, a pathologist working for the FDA, uncovered evidence that G.D.Searle might have committed criminal fraud in withholding adverse data on aspartame.
[1] Aspartame is in over 4,000 products worldwide and is consumed by over 200 million people in the United States alone. What follows is a skeletal examination of the chronology related to aspartame. A more detailed chronology is given later in this chapter based on information provided to us by the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network.
Terminator Seeds
Our Supreme Court, on Dec. 10, 2001, ruled 6-2 that plants -- any plants -- can be patented. Attorney General and Missourian John Ashcroft asked for the ruling, which was written by Clarence Thomas.
Monsanto's lawyer Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court by George Bush, Sr. The deciding swing vote giving the election to George, Jr. was made by Clarence Thomas, Esq
The Ultimate Hypocrisy : "Justice" Thomas, Who Smoked Marijuana At Yale Law School, Writes Supreme Court Opinion Against Medical Cannabis. Persecuting the Sick and Dying.
Franken Shrub--Bush's Ties to Monsanto
"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell,
Monsanto's director of corporate communications.
"Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Seed Patenting
Saccharin was the first poison to be manufactured from coal tar by Mutano.
It was supposed to be a sweetener and SUBSTITUTE for SUGAR.
Huge quantities were sold to the Chinese. It was later proved to be highly carcinogenic.
Later on Monsanto would be infamous for the production of PCB's and Agent Orange
which was used against the Vietnamese to destory their forests.
Monsanto knowingly dumped 30 to 40 pounds of dioxin a day into the Mississippi River between
1970 and 1977 which could enter the St. Louis food chain...
The US Atty. Skinner while prosecuting G.D. Searle for falsifying original Aspartame tests,
reacused himself at the last minute, taking a position with Sidley &Austin, Searle's lawfirm.
Bushit Rumcheney Cocktail: Fascist Nationalism and MKULTRA, Aspartame and Asbestos
FDA Deputy Commissioner, Lester M. Crawford objected to Measure 27,
a citizens’ initiative that would require genetically engineered foods to be labeled in Oregon.
Chicken Hawk War Mongers...
George Bush Jr, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas,
Ken Starr, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, and Dan Quayle.
Monsanto Afiliations
Ashcroft, Bush, Cliarence Thomas, Rumsfeld, Cheney
Frankenfoods, Agent Orange, DDT, Saccharin, Terminater Seeds, Roundup
Monsanto's Aspartame or Equal can be credited with mimicking or instigating alzheimers,
juvenile diabetes, depression, epileptic seizures, blindness, memory loss, excitability,
weight gain, MS and Lupus. When heated it turns to formaldehyde making virtual
swiss cheess of the brain of the consumer.
Justice Thomas used the lecture to emphasise that he early on
turned his back on the civil rights movement
Terminator Seeds * Monsanto Sucks * Not Milk * VegSource * Mad Cowboy
EarthSave International * Monsanto's Cliarence linx * Poster
In 2001, as well as ruling on the seed patent issue, Justice Clarence Thomas received
the Francis Boyer Award "established by [chemical/pharma giant] SmithKline Beecham
During the 2000 election,
Attorney General John Ashcroft received more money from Monsanto than any other politician.
Clarence Thomas's Cruel View of Prisoners
IEN-Indigenous Environmental Network Links
Corporate Predators...
LAKOTA, HEMP, AND GLOBALIZATION
The Drug War Comes To The Rez * Poster
1936: DuPont obtains a patent license to manufacture synthetic "plastic fibers" from German industrial giant I.G. Farben Corporation. The patent license is obtained as part Germany's reparation payments to the United States after World War I. A few years later, I.G. Farben manufactures deadly Zyklon-B gas, used in Nazi death camps to murder millions of Jews (along with many homosexuals and drug users). DuPont owned and financed approximately 30% of Hitler's I.G. Corps, the military-industrial backbone of the fascist Third Reich.
jackherer.com
Enron Owns GOPerverts * Poster
The Elkhorn Manifesto
Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
STATE OF THE UNION: CORRUPT
Spraying Misery
WoD on the Environment
The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer
Why do you think they call it dope?
"We the People are the rightful master of both congress and the courts
- not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
Abraham Lincoln
How FIJA Saved My Life!
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- President John F. Kennedy
Judge Orders Cheney Records Released
Bush Flatly Refuses to Hand Over Energy Papers
Bush's Stealth Policy on Nuclear Arms
NASA GISS: Tracking Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuel Burning
Cannabis Fuel * hempcar.org
Bushit Cheneynagans D.E.A.th & Oil! * OPEC Dick Poster
Google: Paraquat/Marijuana
D.E.A.th Deceptions
