Coverage by BBSNews

BBSNews - 2003-07-24 -- Parents have a new and imperative reason to warn children away from marijuana in the State of Oklahoma. The state is poisoning the crop in hopes of eradicating marijuana use. According to an AP story reported by channeloklahoma.com "The weed killer sprayed on the plants is harmful to people who smoke the marijuana, but studies have shown that a person would need to smoke about 47 herbicide-laced cigarettes before it would harm them."

Group of young hemp plants tinged with red.

In the AP story, Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation spokesman Mark Woodward also said "The red dye is to warn the public the plants have been sprayed with weed killer." Apparently with a straight face and never having heard of Panama Red before.

This is a very serious issue. Wild hemp is not particularly sought after by someone seeking marijuana. Nevertheless, there will no doubt be some kids who are duped into thinking this stuff is some kind of special "marijuana."

They will be smoking the poison. It won't be someone that is at all familiar with the substance, it will be kids duped into thinking it's the "real thing."

It's not been reported what herbicide is involved or what studies support the exact number of "47 herbicide-laced cigarettes" resulting in harm to a marijuana consumer. No pictures are yet available of what this "marijuana" looks like after sprayed and dead.

A precedent does exist however that makes this a very real warning. Paraquat. "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)."

It appears important that the state of Oklahoma reveals what exactly they are spraying out there. Making marijuana dangerous is not sound public policy.