Anonymous writes:

This alert advises that nationwide trend among drug traffickers is to "bait" law enforcement officers with a white powder called RICIN. RICIN is a derivative of Castor beans and looks like powder methamphetamine. It is highly toxic and if it contacts human skin, it is fatal. The death process takes several days, depending upon the dosage, and is almost impossible to detect during an autopsy.

Ricin is a ribosome-inactivator, which inhibits protein synthesis at the cellular level by binding to and damaging the 50S ribosomal subunit. This is eventually and irreversibly fatal, although not immediately so, and the symptoms which occur in poisoned individuals are generally misdiagnosed by internists as a wide variety of other ailments. The most famous case of the use of ricin was when Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markow was assasinated by the KGB with an umbrella jab which left a microscopic porous metal sphere tainted with ricin in his leg. He died in agony a number of days later. The lethal dose of ricin in humans is microscopic, and it is a poison of choice in cancer therapy, since it destroys cells and patients are unlikely to have previous immunological exposure to it. It can be bound to monoclonal antibodies, or other carriers, to target only specific cells.

Due to this situation, in the event of suspect drug seziures, do not come into direct skin contact with any powdered substances, and exhibit caution of field testing any powdered substances."

LOL! Like one should come in contact with ANY unknown chemical substance, powdered or not. Remember that researcher who just died after accidently getting a drop of Dimethyl Mercury on a gloved hand, not to mention the one who got a speck in her eye and succumbed to monkey herpes a couple of weeks later, despite intensive antiviral therapy. And that's not even mentioning other fun things like Thallium, and Organophosphate nerve agents, or the use of cellular penetrators like DMSO as carriers for contact poisons. Ricin isn't the only nasty substance one could use to keep jackbooted thugs out of the marijuana plants. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"