Weed killer used may cause cancer; decision could complicate country’s long-standing war on drugs.
Colombia’s president will ask the government to suspend aerial fumigation of coca plants used to make cocaine, he said on Saturday, amid signs the weed killer used may cause cancer, a decision which could complicate the country’s war on drugs.
President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday he will ask the National Narcotics Council to suspend crop dusting flights after the World Health Organization (WHO) said in March that glyphosate they disperse is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Colombia is one of the world’s biggest producers of cocaine, which is derived from the coca plant. Its leftist rebel groups, the FARC and ELN as well as criminal gangs, make huge sums from their involvement in its production and trafficking.
“This must not from any point of view, be seen as a softening of our policy against narco-trafficking,” Santos said.
“On the contrary, I have given instructions to both the Defense Ministry, police and prosecutor to intensify our work against other parts of the chain, which could even be more effective.”
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