Paraquat bill would increase spraying
By MIKE RUST
01 the Emerald
Paraquat spraying may be resumed in
the United States, Colombia and Mexico
if bills currently in the U S. Congress are
enacted.
“We anticipate that we will see dome
stic paraquat spraying within this year,”
says Joe Wilson of People Effectively
Appealing for Canabis Equality, a Lane
County group working for liberalized
marijuana laws.
HR2364, sponsored by Rep. Billy Lee
Evans, D-Ga., would release $8 million
for a marijuana eradication program in
Colombia. A bill in the U.S. Senate,
sponsored by Sam Nunn, D-Ga., would
allow the Drug Enforcement Agency to
use military arsenals to enforce drug
laws.
This bill would allow the DEA to use
satellites in pinpointing, through color
coding, the locations of marijauna farms.
Wilson says this probably would wipe
out independent growers, making it ea
sier for organized crime to become in
volved in the production of marijuana.
Paraquat spraying in 1978 increased
consumption of domestic marijuana by
an estimated 10 percent — from 5 to 15
percent, he says.
A White House report claims that 10
states grow large quantities of mar
ijuana. Oregon, California, Hawaii and
Arizona already are the targets of sur
veillance overflights coordinated by the
DEA and federal officials, Wilson says.
People concerned about the possible
resumption of paraquat spraying should
Emerald Graphic
"write their representatives, U S. sena
tors and the White House and give their
opinion about this wasteful use of
resources,’’ Wilson says.
A paraquat spraying program in
Mexico that was halted in 1978 cost $100
million, Wilson says. If enacted, the
proposed spraying in Colombia would
cost $25 million over the next decade,
Wilson says, describing the price as
“outrageous” in this time of budget cuts.
“We say you won’t solve any kind of
marijuana abuse by invading people's
homes and violating their constitutional
rights."
The halt to Mexican spraying came in
1978 as a result of the Percy
Amendment. Sponsored by Sen. Charles
Percy, R-lll., the legislation requires that
all paraquat-sprayed marijuana be
marked as a warning. The DEA currently
is lobbying for appeal of the amendment,
and Percy himself no longer is inclined to
oppose paraquat spraying, Wilson says.
Congressional supporters of the par
aquat spraying have contended that
1978 government studies linking the
smoking of herbicide-contaminated
marijuana to possible lung damage were
"greatly exaggerated," according to
Wilson.
But the Atlanta-uased Federal Center
for Disease Control stands by earlier
reports to the contrary, Wilson adds.
The center says studies indicate that
smoking paraquat-contaminated mar
ijuana can, over a period of time,
produce a condition known as “fibrosis”
— the permanent scarring of lung tissue.
This possible health risk prompted
Colombia’s minister of government
German Zea to undertake an $8-million
marijuana eradication program. An At
lanta newspaper reported at the same
time that many Colombians claim the
United States is using paraquat to cut off
competition for American growers, a
claim Wilson says is “significant.”
Olum clarifies statement
about closing one university
University Pres. Paul Olum's
tough talk Wednesday has
alarmed some people
At his Wednesday student
address, he indicated that if the
Legislature cut the state higher
education budget by 16
percent, the state should close
one of the three major Universi
ties and consolidate resources
at the other two. Confusion has
reigned since, and Olum's clar
ification follows:
One of the students asked
what I thought the conseque
nces would be if our budget
were cut at a level of 16 percent
or beyond. As part of my
response I said, with consider
able heat, that I felt that a
budget cut at that level would so
thoroughly destroy our pro
grams and reduce all of the in
stitutions to such mediocrity
that, if that came to pass, I
would prefer to make a public
recommendation that one of the
three major comprehensive un
iversities be closed rather than
have all of them face such a
disastrous cut.
I did not have in mind any one
of the institutions nor do I intend
to be pointing the finger at an
yone We are all in this together
and I am perfectly aware that my
statement includes putting the
University of Oregon at risk in
any such decision.
Nonetheless, I feel strongly that
a budget reduction at anything
like the 20 percent level would
make this University completely
unable to function as a scholarly
institution of quality in the
country. The continuation of
three less than mediocre un
iversities would little serve the
interests of the state and I would
rather see one closed and
resources consolidated to
maintain two first-rate institu
tions even if the one to be
closed were the University of
Oregon.
I take it from the strong
response of the students who
were present that what they,
too, want is quality university
education in this state and not
three institutions unworthy of
the name university.
Nuke hearing set
on memorial vote
A proposed state memorial calling for a bilateral mora
torium on the nuclear arms race is scheduled for a hearing
Monday in Salem at the Legislature.
Senate Joint Memorial 5, which was adopted by the state
senate on April 15, would ask the U.S. Congress and
president to establish as national policy that the United States
will never be the first nation to use nuclear weapons in
international conflict.
The memorial also would ask Congress to propose to the
Soviet Union a mutual freeze on all further testing, production
and deployment of nuclear weapons. And if such a freeze is
mutually agreed upon, the memorial asks that the funds that
would have been used for those purposes be transferred to
civilian use.
Monday’s hearing before a subcommittee of the House
Justice Committee begins at 1:30 p.m. Those interested in
attending or testifying should contact the Survival Center,
which is providing transportation, at 686-4356.