(Environmental Impact of Illicit Drug Production and Eradication) "Plant-based drugs are often grown in ecologically valuable forest areas, with immediate and devastating consequences for the environment: deforestation, degradation of the soil, and pollution. Many traditional economic activities—such as agriculture, mining, and cattle ranching—have a negative impact on natural ecosystems, in part because they tend to replace native forests with croplands. The data provided below are, consequently, valid for both licit and illicit activities.

(Colombian Deforestation) "In Colombia, it is estimated that more than one million hectares of native forest have been eliminated as a result of illicit crops, and that for each hectare of coca, four hectares of forest are cut down, almost always by the slash-and-burn method. This deforestation, in turn, causes soil erosion."

(Types of Mycoherbicides) "There are two mycoherbicide candidates that have been proposed for use against illicit drug crops. One of these is Fusarium oxysporum and the other is Pleospora papaveracea. Both are toxic molds that attack their targets ('hosts') through the secretion of cell-dissolving chemicals called mycotoxins."

(Illegal Biological Agents) "While mycoherbicides contain chemical toxins, they are actually covered under the [United Nations] Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) rather than the Chemical Weapons Convention.⁶⁴ Given that mycoherbicides are biological agents it has been argued that their use, especially in foreign countries, would be illegal under the BWC."

(Damage Caused By Fusarium species) "Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium sporotrichioides, F. poae as well as Fusarium oxysporum are the causative agents of FHB [Fusarium head blight] in barley and often lead to significant grain loss worldwide [36,216]. Infection of the grain results in economic loss due to shrunken grain heads, with loss of milling and malting quality. Infected grains are also contaminated by potent toxic secondary metabolites (described below) produced by these fungi [36,197,216].

(Human Health Threats Posed By Fusarium Species) "Cutaneous diseases related to Fusarium spp. can appear in both immunocompromised and healthy hosts and include toxic reactions, colonization, superficial infection, deep cutaneous or subcutaneous infections and disseminated infection.

(Human Health Threat Posed By Fusarium Species) "Fusarium species have emerged as major cause for fungal infections.[21] The first invasive fusariosis was reported in a child in 1973.[22] Invasive Fusarium infections represent an increasing cause of infectious morbidity and mortality in patients with blood cancer.[23] While aspergillosis remains the most common mycosis, Fusarium is the most frequently occurring new opportunistic pathogen that causes life-threatening infections.[24]

(Fusarium Oxysporum) "Fusarium oxysporum is a well-known plant pathogen causing damage and large losses in food and industrial crops worldwide. Researchers of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed highly virulent strains that attack cannabis (marijuana) and coca plants, the source of cocaine. The coca-killing strain favored by the US is named EN-4 and was isolated in 1987 during USDA-funded experiments at a government coca plantation on Hawaii. Work to isolate F.

(Scientific Study Required) "The 'Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006' (P.L. 109-469) requires that ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] submit to Congress a plan to conduct a scientific study of mycoherbicides as means of illicit drug crop elimination, including an evaluation of the likely environmental and human health impacts if these toxin-producing fungi were to be deployed.

(Mycoherbicide Use and UN Principles) "The Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia (Office of the Ombudsman) reported that the Office is studying the possibility of experimentation with the fungus Fusarium oxysporum in Colombia and the future application of that fungus as a biological agent for eradicating illegal crops. This body is gathering information on the serious risks to life, human health and the environment that could result from experimentation with the F.