Western Front - 1978 April 7

              WE5TERN FRONT Vol. 70 No.37
FRIDAY. APRIL 7, 1978
Gov't, sprays dope with killer herbicide
by GEOFLOGAN
If the marijuana you are smoking
is from Mexico, it might do more than
make you high.
It might make you ill.
The United States has been assist­ing
Mexican authorities in a herbi-cidal
aerial spray program since
1973, according to an article in the
Feb. 24 issue of Science Magazine
and recent press reports.
The purpose of the program is to
destroy remote fields of marijuana
and poppies in the inacessable moun­tain
regions of Mexico.
Now herbicide contaminated mari­juana
is turning up in the United
States, causing alarm among health
officials, politicians and users.
Only Mexican marijuana is affect­ed.
Marijuana from Columbia, Ja­maica
and other countries is untaint­ed
because those governments have
refused to participate in the Ameri­can
sponsored program for environ­mental
reasons.
The herbicide, called paraquat, is
highly toxic, causing severe damage
or death when taken in pure form.
Paraquat's toxicity is reduced
when sprayed, but might still pose a
serious hazard when smoked or
ingested with marijuana.
Yet public and private health
authorities disagree on paraquats
effect on marijuana users.
"There is not enough information
available to be very confident about
effects of marijuana laced with
paraquat," Roger Roffman, state
coordinator of the National Organi­zation
for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML], s.aia\ ..... . ...
Roffman quoted a report released
last month by the National Institute of
Drug Abuse (NIDA) that said smoking
two to three joints a day for a period
of two months can lead to an
irreversible form of lung damage
called fibrosis.
"But the effects are now known in
lesser amounts," Roffman said.
NIDA officials were unavailable
for comment.
Ted Schramm of the National
Conference on Drug Abuse calls the
NIDA report "supposition."
Schramm recommended, however,
that anyone smoking Mexican mari­juana
for the last two to three years
"should see a doctor or internist."
Users are turning in increasing
numbers to drug analysis services to
quell their fears about their mari­juana.
Pharm-Chem Labs of Palo Alto,
Calif, provides such a service to the
public for a small charge.
"We've received probably 3,000
samples so far," John Kotecki,
Pharm-Chem spokesman, said.
Kotecki said of the 3,000 samples,
.949 had been tested. Eighteen
percent were contaminated.
A breakdown of what parts of the
United States the paraquat laden
marijuana is coming from won't be
available for several weeks, Kotecki
said.
No figures or reports on contam­inated
marijuana are available for
the Seattle or Bellingham areas, but
local sample testing is being done by
the Associated Students Drug Infor­mation
Center.
The office in recent weeks has sent
student-submitted samples to Wash­ington
State University's School of
Pharmacy drug analysis unit. The
results are not in as yet.
A spokesman for the School of
Pharmacy said "We're not even sure
we can test for it (paraquat). But we
are going to try."
All sources report that, at present,
only complex chemical analysis can
identify contaminated marijuana pos­itively.
Roffman said heavily-contaminated
marijuana might "be sticky and
yellow and have burn holes from the
herbicide."
Lesser exposure to the herbicide
causes no visible change, he said.
Paraquat acts on a sprayed plant
by sticking to the leaves and breaking
them down through a reaction to
sunlight.
The plant must stand in the sun for
at least one to two days to be
completely destroyed.
This led Mexican growers to har­vest
their crops immediately after
spraying. They remove the plants
from sunlight, halting the breakdown
process and leaving the paraquat on
the plant.
The paraquat is shipped to the
United States to be used by unwary
customers.
Schramm said some growers and
sellers are dyeing their yellowed
merchandise or mixing it with green­er
marijuana to hide its contamina­tion
from the buyer.
"There is no special taste or smell
to contaminated marijuana," Schr­amm
said. He urged all individuals to
have their marijuana tested.
NORML has reacted to the spray­ing
by filing suit in U.S. District Court
for an injunction to stop American
support for the Mexican program.
Named as defendants in the suit
are the State Department, the Drug
Enforcement Agency, the Agency for
International Development and the
Department of Agriculture.
"I don't believe the government is
inclined to back off at this time,"
Roffman said.
Local spokesmen for the Federal
government declined comment.
See related story on page 3
Pay hike could mean 25 percent fewer student jobs
by STEVE VALANDRA
An increase in the federal
hourly niinimum wage to $2.90
next Jan. 1 might result in a 25
percent reduction in part-time
student jobs at Western.
The reduction could happen
if each department employing
students decides to pay the
increase out of its existing
budget, James Talbot, vice
president for academic affairs,
said.
The raise to $2.90 from $2.65
represents a 9.3 percent in­crease.
That, added to a 15
percent bike last quarter to
$2.65 from $2.30, means each
department's budget would be
overdrawn by nearly 25 per­cent,
Talbot said.
Some departments, such as
the library, anticipated last
quarter's increase, re-arrang­ed
their budget priorities and
were able to pay the new wage,
Talbot said. Others did not and
had to find money from another
area of the budget to meet the
increase.
It will be up to each depart­ment
to decide whether to pay
the wage hike, Talbot said. A
department could decide to pay
the increase but employ fewer
students, he said. It also is
possible Western might not pay
the increase since federal law
exempts public institutions
from federal standards.
Talbot said he will get infor­mation
from each department
within the next two weeks to
determine whether they will be
able to pay the increase.
Student Sen. Doug Scott, who
has been trying to get the
administration to implement
retroactive pay to last Jan. 1 for
student employees, said the
money for back pay and the
expected increases are already
in each budget. He cited a
controller office report, BM
3,000, that lists the funds
allocated and spent for student
jobs in each department.
"The problem is getting the
departments to distribute the
money," Scott said. "Since
departments are not bound to
hiring students with the funds
allocated the money is used
elsewhere," he said.
The student employment task
force, set up by the All-Univer­sity
Senate in February, is
studying the current process
for hiring student employees. It
will submit recommendations
for changes, no later than the
fourth week of spring quarter if
it determines any are neces­sary,
to the senate or it's
successor.
Also included in the study
will be an examination to
determine whether Western
will be able to pay the minimum
wage increase of last Jan. 1 on
a retroactive basis. The cost
would be about $21 per student
employee, Martin Reeves, AS
Board member, said.
Additional funds for both the
wage increase and retroactive
pay could come from the state
legislature, Talbot said. The
problem is that Western will
not submit its next budget
request until July 1979. Last
quarter the university made a
request to the legislature for a
supplement of $76,000 to pay
for the wage increase to $2.65.
Since Gov. Dixy Lee Ray de­cided
not to call a special
session, the request was not
acted on.
Inside Ravin' Ray
Fire and brimstone preach­ing
hits Red Square. See
page 3.