New super strain of coca plant stuns anti-drug officials
`DRUG traffickers have created a new strain of coca plant that yields up to four times more cocaine than existing plants [..]
Experts estimate that the drugs traffickers spent £60 million to develop the new plant, using strains from Peru and crossbreeding them with potent Colombian varieties, as well as engaging in genetic engineering.
The resulting plant has also been bred to resist the gliphosate chemicals developed in the US that are sprayed on drugs crops across Colombia.’
August 31st, 2004 at 7:15 pm
Isn’t it great to see the US drug policies pushing some great research in South America.
Shame this will drive the coca farmers to be more relient on the drug cartels as cocaine prices drop and field need to be planted up by this new strain just to keep up.
Think “Monsanto”…
E D
August 31st, 2004 at 9:15 pm
While I’m not opposed to the idea of genetic engineering in general, even properly regulated genetic engineers [Monsanto among them] do some dodgy things. The idea of using antibiotic resistance as a marker gene doesn’t seem like a good idea to me, given what I’ve read about the ease of gene-transfer in the wild.
I wonder what sorts of genes these drug producers have been splicing about the place, given the presumably unregulated nature of their research.
The glyphosate resistance in the cocoa crop is probably based on Monsanto’s work also. Atleast in this case, Monsanto can’t force the cocao growers to purchase their proprietry herbicides.
“Roundup(TM) Ready Crack-Cocaine” is probably not a phrase Monstanto would be too keen on. 🙂
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Fascinating…gene hacking is the future, there shall be a transgenic cyberized population in the near future…gene manipulation will be the norm.
I look forward to rogue scientists splicing the genes responsible for THC production in cannabis into common garden vegetable plants, let alone the idea of implanting them in the kudzu plant, which was imported to the southern united states years ago from japan, and now grows like wildfire all across the south.
Imagine it, medicine in the garden, you dont have to buy, you need only grow it, think of all those tasty tomatoes that will be putting smiles on our faces in the future…
“What are you doing?”, “Im getting stoned, care for a tomato?”
Genetic engineering is cool, i cant wait to hack my genes and unlock the overman withen…regrow arms so forth….might even take on carnivorous lunar behavior during full moos, werewolf ala gene splice.