DRUG BARONS MAKE G. M. COCAINE

[Alfa]

DRUG BARONS 'MAKE GM COCAINE'


Colombian drug lords had developed a genetically modified "cocaine tree"


that contained higher drug levels and was resistant to herbicides, the Financial Times newspaper said today.


Drug producers were helped by foreign scientists to develop the leafier strain of plant, which grows to 2.7m, twice the height of the normal shrub, the newspaper said, citing a Columbian police intelligence dossier.


"In their search for greater profits, drug-traffickers appear to have entered the world of genetically-modified crops," the dossier was quoted as saying.


The tree yielded eight times more cocaine than the normal shrub, and due to its size and sturdiness was more resistant to herbicides -- one of Colombia's main weapons in the war on drugs.