IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/johsem/v9y2012i1p8n23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emerging Dangers from Direct Botulinum Access and Use

Author

Listed:
  • Liang Bryan A.

    (California Western School of Law, University of California, San Diego)

  • Mackey Timothy K.

    (California Western School of Law, University of California, San Diego)

  • Lovett Kimberly

    (Kaiser Permanente, UCSD School of Medicine)

Abstract

Botulinum toxin (BTX-A) is the most deadly substance known. Yet it has clinical applications, particularly cosmetic uses. With the latter’s exploding popularity, unauthorized BTX-A is emerging from suspect sources. In combination with the Internet as a virtually unregulated marketplace, BTX-A is available for direct purchase and use. This represents a safety threat against individuals and civil society. Since extant technology and Internet marketing can easily target individual consumers by changing BTX-A concentration and pose risks for society by scaling up production for terrorist purposes, BTX-A availability is a homeland security threat. To address this, BTX-A should be deemed a controlled substance subjecting it to track-and-trace and other requirements. Simultaneously, this categorization would subject it to federal law requiring Drug Enforcement Agency registration and state licensure for sales. This relatively simple step can be a strategy adopted for other high risk materials and an international approach to limit the availability of potentially harmful materials.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang Bryan A. & Mackey Timothy K. & Lovett Kimberly, 2012. "Emerging Dangers from Direct Botulinum Access and Use," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:9:y:2012:i:1:p:8:n:23
    DOI: 10.1515/1547-7355.1973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/1547-7355.1973
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/1547-7355.1973?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:9:y:2012:i:1:p:8:n:23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.