Stepped-Up War on Marijuana to Use Paraquat

WASHINGTON —  The chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday that the government will use paraquat and other herbicides in a stepped-up campaign to eradicate domestically grown marijuana.

Agency Director John C. Lawn said at a news conference that paraquat, which was banned from use on national forests in 1983 because of environmental concerns, would be one of three herbicides used in the program, Operation Stop Crop 1988.

An agency spokesman, Cornelius Dougherty, subsequently said that paraquat would be used in spraying for marijuana eradication on private land, not on public property, in light of the court ruling.

Other Herbicides Named

The other two herbicides cited by Lawn--2, 4 d and glyphosate--are not involved in the 1983 federal court decision and could be used on public lands, a spokesman said.

Lawn said an environmental impact statement must be prepared when eradication is contemplated and “at that point the determination is made by environmentalists, by law enforcement, which chemical will be most effective.”

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said “the real environmental damage is not from” the herbicides, but from what is being done by the illegal growers of marijuana. He said they are “cutting down trees . . . damming streams and pouring pesticides and fertilizer” into streams.

Meese said Operation Stop Crop is designed to rid the country of marijuana-growing efforts by drug traffickers who have in many cases dispersed their operations into national forests and other remote areas to avoid detection.