From: Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 12:00:42 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Ricin AP
Message-ID: <199801140354.VAA01308@wire.insync.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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"