New Coca Plants Said to Lurk in Colombia (Bigger, Faster, & Stronger)

[Nambe]

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)

Authorities suspect a new threat is lurking in the mountains and jungles of Colombia: Not a new rebel cadre, but altered coca plants that are bigger, faster-growing and produce more of the compound that gives cocaine its kick. ..

"They were giant bushes, with really big leaves," Uribe said, adding that the leaves produce higher concentrations of alkaloid, the compound that gives cocaine its high.

Giant coca plants have also been spotted in the state of Putumayo, historically a major coca-growing region in southern Colombia, where locals call the new varieties White Bolivian and Black Bolivian.

In a recent forum in Bogota, Eder Sanchez, a peasant leader from Putumayo, said the Black Bolivian variety is more resistant to herbicides than Tingo Maria, which for years was a favorite among coca growers. ..

[Syrinx]

1. sounds like someone has been playing with colchicine.

[Nambe]

3. Colchicine prevents cell division? It's a new word for me though!

Our drug policies are so polluted on every level, the faster they fail the better IMO.

[cosmicaug]

5. Polyploidy.

IIRC, colchicine can also be used to alter chromosome number making polyploids. It's been used in this way to make tulips that make larger blooms and to make fruit plants that bear larger fruits (blueberries?). That's probably what syrinx9999 had in mind.

[Nambe]

6. We should ask these cocaine chemists for a cancer cure.

I sounds like they know what they're doing and they don't expect the profits the Pfizer does.

[LauraK]

2. Drug addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal issue.

The DEA is wasting $4 billion a year and the problem is getting worse. The US is the only country that hasn't adapted to the reality of drug addiction and the only country with escalating drug related crime. The solutions are learned and praticed all around us and we don't get it.

The little town I grew up in gets $80,000 dollars a year for drug enforcement if they get four drug convictions each year. If they arrest the two people bringing the drugs into the area, they won't get the 4 convitions per year so they leave them be and arrest people with small amounts to get the funds. This is happening nation wide. Our current efforts are actually increasing the number of drug addicted citizens who go without medical attention and into the criminal system. Meanwhile, officials at all levels are absorbing the $$$$.

[reprobate]

16. Add to that the fact that the law created a criminal underclass.

Which has created an entire industry of imprisonment. And industry which I have heard (cant remember where, so can't confirm) is tied to the bush family somehow.

Funny how whenever you trace the connections to anything to do with criminality in the US a bush is involved somewhere. Yet the half of the population that worships him refuse to hear any against 'little boots'.

[gauguin57]

4. George W. Bush to make campaign stop in Colombia.

Film at 11!

[saigon68]

15. As he takes a Rip on the Crack Pipe

Ah the good old days he thinks.

[0rganism]

7. Not surprising, really

Dumping defoliants on the cocoa fields probably exerts a strong selective pressure. The plants have no choice but to evolve. In between that and the careful breeding guidance of dedicated farmers, we got ourselves some new variants.

Oh well. In the words of the late Rick James, "Cocaine's a helluva drug."

[Scurrilous]

8. Frankencaine? eom

[JSJ]

9. alarmist, anti-drug hysteria...

...similar to claims by the USDEA of 20x stronger cannabis. Government scientists aren't paid to do science but to lie.

[cosmicaug]

13. You are correct, sir!

JSJ wrote:

alarmist, anti-drug hysteria...
...similar to claims by the USDEA of 20x stronger cannabis. Government scientists aren't paid to do science but to lie.

You are correct (it had actually crossed my mind to comment on this). The clue here is that despite the claims, the D.E.A. types are still "trying to confirm". This means that Uribe, whether he has seen anything (maybe from far away) or not, does not have half a dozen specimens he can show to the authorities (and thus, they're still "trying to confirm").

The only conclusion one can pull (if the above is correct) is that Uribe is either reporting second hand rumors with respect to the alkalloid concentration or outright pulling the claim out of his ass.

[Jack_DeLeon]

10. OH NOES!!!1!!!!!11111

there are plants in the jungle. :eyes:

[bemildred]

11. I guess Alvaro wants more money. nt

[dumpster_baby]

12. Dirty commies in venezuela are behind this! We must invade Venezuela!

They hate us for the way we live (that and the fact that we are snorting all their cocaine...)

[yellowcanine]

14. Heh. I always watch out for those "lurking" coca plants when I am out for

a hike in the woods. Particularly if it is after dark.