HERBICIDE PLAN PREMATURE

The Clinton administration is in danger of going overboard in its attempt
to eradicate drug-producing plants in Colombia, pressing the government
there to take the first step toward developing a powerful biological herbicide.

The Colombians are reluctant to use these herbicides for fear they will
damage food crops, people and farm animals. Similar fears in the United
States prompted Florida officials last year to back away from testing such
herbicides against marijuana. If these herbicides are too dangerous for use
in the U.S., the administration has no right to press them on other nations.

Backers of the program insist it is safe, pointing out that the herbicide
being considered here would be developed from a fungus that occurs
naturally in many types of coca, the plant that produces the raw material
of cocaine.

Still, the Colombians are leery about the whole idea; the nation's
environmental minister told The New York Times that his government seeks
"research - and only research" on the use of these herbicides.

Their effectiveness is as uncertain as their impact on the environment. One
expert said narco-farmers might do what farmers anywhere do: spray their
crops with fungicides or develop strains of plants that are resistant to
the fungus.

The obvious first step here is rigorous, independent testing to see whether
the herbicides are safe and effective. Until such tests are done, any
decision to use these herbicides would be premature and reckless.