The Nation - News from July 26, 1989

Ten percent of marijuana street samples tested by the Drug Enforcement Administration in five cities, including Los Angeles, were found to be laced with paraquat and glyphosate, two toxic herbicides used in U.S.-funded foreign drug eradication programs, a DEA official said this week. The results of the survey, the first of its kind by the government, have raised new concerns about possible contamination of thousands of tons of marijuana smuggled each year into the United States, the Washington Post reported. As part of a nationwide testing program last summer, undercover DEA agents purchased 100 street samples of marijuana to determine price, availability and potency, Zolak said.