Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 09:22:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Sean Barry <sjbarry@ucdavis.edu> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2718$foo@default> Subject: Ordering colchicine?
On Mon, 26 Jul 1999, Chris Hind wrote:
> >Can any one say where/to whom can I buy colchicine
> Supposedly it can be extracted from autumn crocus bulbs. It is considered a
> controlled substance in the US as some idiot kids tried to create a
> super-pot and then followed it up by smoking the sprayed leaves which
> effectively killed them. So in a knee-jerk law they decided to ban
> colchicine and thus deprave amateur cultvar creators of a very powerful
> tool.
Hmmm--
I don't know where this incredible rumor started, but it's entirely
baseless. Colchicine does not appear on any of the DEA controlled
substance schedules (I-IV). I'd be VERY interested in checking your
sources for this. Colchicine _is_ a remarkably (potentially) hazardous
substance, as its unsafe use can cause mitosis (cell division) to stop in
its tracks (in the user). This may not matter much with regards to brain
and muscle tissue, but could spell doom for intestinal epithelium, liver
tissue (think neoplasms, aka cancer), and meiotic cell types, such as
sperm and ova primordia. It is used to induce polyploidy in germ cell
primordia. In plants such polyploid cells can quite often survive and
retain their ploidy through successive generations. Polyploid animal germ
cells cannot usually survive division, although there are certain
well-documented exceptions (certain ambystomid salamanders and hylid
frogs). In any case, I think I'd rather handle live rattlesnakes than
colchicine if I were given the choice.
BTW, if you are an authentic business and have an account, colchicine can
be ordered from Sigma Chemical Company (cat# C9754). Otherwise, try the
sources for kitchen cell-culture kits. I think you should consider safer
means of genetic manipulation, suh as selective breeding.....
Sean Barry
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