Man Critical After Ricin Find In Vegas

[DeSwiss]

Source: Associated Press

Man critical after ricin find in Vegas

15 minutes ago

LAS VEGAS - Police say a man is in critical condition after the deadly toxin ricin was found in his Las Vegas motel room. Las Vegas police Lt. Lewis Roberts says the man has been in a coma since he was found in his room at the Extended Stay America Motel on Thursday.

He's one of seven people hospitalized after the ricin was discovered. Police have said most were examined as a precaution.

Roberts says police don't think foul play is involved, and the FBI says the case doesn't appear to be terrorism-related. But authorities aren't sure why the man had a vial of powdered ricin in his room.

Ricin is made from processing castor beans, and can be extremely lethal.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080229/ap_on_re_us/motel_hazardous_material

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- "No foul play involved?" Of course. Ingesting obscure and illegal deadly poisons happens everyday in Vegas. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.....
========================================================================
DeSwiss

[acmavm]

1. The police in Vegas sure are taking it for granted that the whole

rest of the world is stupid.

[dbonds]

8. Don't want to scare away the tourist.

[balantz]

11. They wouldn't want a war on "tourism".

:eyes:

[DeSwiss]

9. They probably think....

...we're just like them.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Couldn't ignore the irony in the name ...

... the "Extended Stay Motel".

[Greyskye]

4. ouch

Missed that in my skim of the OP.

"Police downplay the existence of Ricin, stating: 'There is no cause for alarm. Remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.'"

[leveymg]

5. Touche, Nance.

You're a very b-a-d girl . . . :evilgrin:

[DeSwiss]

10. Where they leave you...

...a complimentary packet of ricin on your pillow each night. I wonder which corporate asshat came up with that idea???

[fshrink]

41. Renamed the Rees Inn perhaps?

[leveymg]

3. Just another case of recreational biotoxin overdose.

Small quantities for personal consumption - $50 ticket in Vegas.

Almost like Amsterdam.

[DeSwiss]

12. Of course.

Just like Amsterdam. Without the water.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. They will play this down to protect the tourist industry.

It's all about money.
Am I being way too cynical?

[DeSwiss]

13. These days...

....I don't think its possible to be too cynical. Know what I mean???

[fascisthunter]

7. This Reads Like Fiction

"Extended Stay America Motel".... gotta be kiddin' me.

[DeSwiss]

15. Helluva way....

...to get out of paying your bill, I'll say that.

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. Like the "The Whole Year Inn" in Leaving Las Vegas

Nick Cage's character looked at it and read it as "The Hole You're In".

[Auggie]

14. Fun Facts About Ricin:

How ricin works:

Ricin works by getting inside the cells of a person’s body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need. Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur. Effects of ricin poisoning depend on whether ricin was inhaled, ingested, or injected.

Signs and symptoms of ricin exposure

Inhalation: Within a few hours of inhaling significant amounts of ricin, the likely symptoms would be respiratory distress (difficulty breathing), fever, cough, nausea, and tightness in the chest. Heavy sweating may follow as well as fluid building up in the lungs (pulmonary edema). This would make breathing even more difficult, and the skin might turn blue. Excess fluid in the lungs would be diagnosed by x-ray or by listening to the chest with a stethoscope. Finally, low blood pressure and respiratory failure may occur, leading to death. In cases of known exposure to ricin, people having respiratory symptoms that started within 12 hours of inhaling ricin should seek medical care.

Ingestion: If someone swallows a significant amount of ricin, he or she would develop vomiting and diarrhea that may become bloody. Severe dehydration may be the result, followed by low blood pressure. Other signs or symptoms may include hallucinations, seizures, and blood in the urine. Within several days, the person’s liver, spleen, and kidneys might stop working, and the person could die.

Death from ricin poisoning could take place within 36 to 72 hours of exposure, depending on the route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, or injection) and the dose received. If death has not occurred in 3 to 5 days, the victim usually recovers.

more: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp

[DeSwiss]

16. Yuck! n/t

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

26. Essentially...

internal organs and viscera dissolve into a delightful melange', just liquified.

It is a nasty as hell way to go.

[mr_hat]

17. This is why you don't buy the blow, you buy the dealer.

[Forrest Greene]

31. That's Kinda What I was Thinking

Does Ricin come in the form of a white powder?

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. There is no legitimate use of ricin

It's not like strychnine or arsenic or other poisons that are used as insecticides or rodenticides. I can't imagine someone trying to kill themselves with it (what a way to go!), so that means that he was either poisoned by someone, or he meant to use it on someone and accidently ingested it.

[Auggie]

20. That's obviously the mystery...

why?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

27. Ricin has great cachet'...

Amongst the self-styled right-wing "freedom fighters".

Sounds like someone has been borne to his final reward on the wings of his fantasies.

[Auggie]

33. Oh, the irony

[14thColony]

21. According to the CDC

Ricin has a few medical applications, notably in bone marrow transplants and to kill cancer cells as part of a cancer treatment. I doubt anyone had ricin at the local motel hell for either of these purposes, but there you go.

An 0.2mg dose of ricin will kill an adult human; eating 8-10 castor beans likewise contains enough ricin to kill an adult. This stuff is 6,000 times more toxic than cyanide, and all you need is a castor bean plant in the back yard.

[enlightenment]

19. Slightly different take in the LV Review Journal online

http://www.lvrj.com/news/16105692.html


The big story is this one:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/16105792.html
"PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS: Clinic outcry grows"

Yet another charming moment in for-profit health care . . . I am sooo happy to live in LV.

[hunter]

22. Along with the ricin article there was this wildly innappropriate ad...

"Getting Hitched? For all your matrimonial needs."

Hey, did you read about this guy poisoned by a chemical warfare agent in a motel room? Let's get married!

:wow:

[enlightenment]

29. Yep - that about sums up the RJ! n/t

[lligrd]

39. Ha, Here Is Some Great Detective Work

From the article:

"We don't know that there was any criminal intent on anybody's part," Las Vegas police Sgt. John Loretto said. "It could have been somebody that was reading a book who wanted to try to make something."

Just an innocent guy trying to cook up some Ricin from his cookbook.

[Ian David]

24. If Ricin is outlawed, only outlaws will have Ricin. n/t

[NM Independent]

25. Woah!! I swear I remember just after 9/11..

...that the media was talking about Ricin.

I also remember hearing Saddam had "stores of Ricin" for use as a biological weapon. I heard Dick fucking Cheney say that in the lead up to the Iraq war. Now, they just dismiss it as nothing????

WTF?? Am I just crazy on this one? Is my memory too fuzzy??

[lligrd]

38. Yep, And Remember The Russian Spy That Was Supposedly

poisoned with Ricin? He lived for quite a while in agony as I recall. Now they are telling us that if you make it 5 days your out of danger. Something doesn't add up here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. If you mean Markov, the Bulgarian journalist, he died within 3 days

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2636459.stm

He's the case they always quote with ricin poisoning. I wonder if you're confusing it with the polonium poisoning case from a couple of years ago, perhaps. That was a Russian.

[librechik]

28. I can think of dozens of reasons a person might need to have ricin besides terrorism.

playing with it, extortion... err... running out of reasons here....

[Taverner]

30. He didn't piss off Putin did he?

[Blue_Tires]

32. right now the pentagon is hoping he has some link to iraq

"see? we told you iraq had those biowarfare agents!"

[IntravenousDemilo]

34. I think I'd also be pretty critical in the same circumstances. n/m

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Not so many umbrellas around in Las Vegas as London

In 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian writer and journalist who was living in London, died after he was attacked by a man with an umbrella. The umbrella had been rigged to inject a poison ricin pellet under Markov’s skin.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp

Britain had a terror-related ricin case - most of the defendants were found innocent, but one (who then killed a policeman while on the run) was found guilty of "conspiracy to cause a public nuisance" with the ricin: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4433459.stm .

[FloridaJudy]

36. "Police don't think foul play was involved"???

:wtf:

I always check into motels with a few grams of deadly poison in my luggage. You never know when you'll need it - say - for getting rid of bedbugs.

I also wonder what Journalism school graduated this writer. "Extremely lethal"? As opposed to the only slightly lethal stuff, that only makes you a little bit dead?

[melody]

37. The dude just collects deadly toxins or something???

How can this NOT be foul play????

I have to add (being the wicked soul I am) that I think it's sad that he may have met his end at the
"Extended Stay America Motel".

[Akoto]

40. How can foul play NOT be involved?

Ricin isn't something you pick up at your local Walgreens. :crazy:

[TheMadMonk]

42. No foul play involved does not exclude no foul play intended by him.

Essentially what the cops are saying is that they don't believe he was deliberately poisoned. Whilst rather clumsily trying not to say that he might have intended to poison another/others. Can't go scaring off the punters. This IS Vegas after all.

[DemReadingDU]

44. So who was the guy that died? and

Why would someone want him dead?

[tinymontgomery]

45. They need to get Gill Grissom(sp) involved

and his whole CSI team. Then we'll get the answer.

[struggle4progress]

46. Related LBN threads:

Initial Tests: Ricin Found at Las Vegas Hotel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3203690

Guns, 'anarchist book' found in motel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3205161