The castor bean plant should be declared illegal immediately with penalties relative to that of pot.[cough]
Seriously, this is one of the grand hypocrisies of the WOD. I am not making light of this situation. How can something that can be processed to make a very deadly substance remain legal? [slam dunk...debate over] Making it illegal would prevent all abuse of this plant and keep anyone from using it in a bad way. /sarc
Seriously, this is one of the grand hypocrisies of the WOD. I am not making light of this situation. How can something that can be processed to make a very deadly substance remain legal? Because Castor oil is an important feedstock for a wide variety of industrial processes and products. It's used not only as a lubricant, but in plastics, paints and pharmaceuticals.
Castor oil is so uniform in chemical makeup that it is also used as a calibration standards endorsed by NIST (formerly NBS).
Unlike hemp, there are no good substitutes available.