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Do the black-market consumers know that? Fentanyl and xylazine come to mind: not many drug users intend to get those, they can get many batches of what they do want before they get an adulterated batch, and they often don’t find out they got the adulterated kind until it’s too late.

I’m also wondering where we’re getting the idea that it’s extremely toxic if ingested. Maybe it’s in the video? The article seems to suggest that it’s “non-toxic” and that

> “the inserted radioisotopes hold no health or any other risk for the animals or those who care for them.”




An additional reference:

  > 'The radioactive material would "render the horn useless... essentially poisonous for human consumption" added Nithaya Chetty, professor and dean of science at [the University of the Witwatersrand]'
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-radioactive-rhino-horns-curb-p...


This contradicts the FAQ page

https://rhisotope.org/faqs/

> Q: What if you drop the radioactive seed in the grass and cannot be found? And other animals accidentally ingest it?

> A: This is a highly unlikely scenario as specific standard operating procedures will be developed to ensure that no radioactive material will be left behind at the treatment site. Should an animal ingest some of the radioactive material subsequent to the initial treatment, the radioisotope will be of such a chemical and physical form that it will quickly pass through the bowels of the animal and be excreted out by that animal. The calculated doses will not do any significant harm.

Perhaps something significant happens when grinding up the radioisotope, but then again this would also happen when ingested by animals (grinding between teeth etc).


  > "The radioactive dose makes the horn poisonous for humans"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cd16yjp0062o


Fentanyl is more complex, now users are more and more looking for it... (source: a friend working in harm reduction)




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