Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-9090085-20130706045355/@comment-11481298-20130706084905

112.209.42.110 wrote: well, Monty did say that u don't need a weapon to use dust. and to answer the question the dust might have been stored in that cross clip and gave her extra power, instead of glowing it was some kind of black,reddish,purpleish shadow.

So that would mean glowing isn't present in every effect of Dust, but most. If it is Dust. There might be a second form of magic in the RWBYverse. ._.

As for the permanent effects you stated, I have no problems with the possibility of having to reload Dust - in fact, I think that's the case, since Dust is mined, refined, and traded - but I doubt it using would have ill effects on a person. Weiss uses Dust much more than Adam, but she seems perfectly fine. Law of Alchemy-style rules for Dust usage doesn't seem very plausible to me, either, since, well, Dust seems to be used like any other everyday object.