_________ SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE SEVENTEEN: MAY 1999 __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / Poisons \ / Presented By -=The Firestarter=- \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Well some people out there wanted information on poisons and such like (well according to the SWATeam Wwwboard anyway), so I dug out my collection of several thousand anarchy files (that's no joke) and did a search for info on poisons, what i found has been presented here for you! (well some of it) -- Ripped from Anarchy Today Issue #2, Article #6 By: The Culprit-- ----------------- | ETHYLENE GLYCOL | ----------------- Ethylene Glycol is simply antifreeze such as Prestone, Zerex, etc. It has a sweetish-like taste to it and can be easily concealed in a bowl of punch, or someones softdrink. At a party or banquet, ethylene glycol can be easily poured from a container such as a kool-aid pitcher into the party punch. Be sure it is mixed with a package of kool-aid or something so that you don't arouse any suspicion. The lethal dosage of this is about four ounces and the good thing about ethylene glycol is that a person that is dying from it simply appears to be drunk... ---------------------- | CARBON TETRACHLORIDE | ---------------------- Carbon Tetrachloride can be easily obtained from fire extinguishers or grease cleaning fluids found in auto supply stores. Carbon Tetrachloride is used in making phosgene gas which is highly lethal and was used in World War I. The gas is made by heating carbon tetrachloride over a flame or hot plate. It is only effective in a closed room. A good way to utilize this is to set a pan full of it on a heater. People seeing it will just think its water often placed on heaters to keep the air from being too dry. Carbon tetrachloride has the smell of musty hay and will most likely be ignored or someone will bring there can of lysol and spray the air with it. ---------- | NICOTINE | ---------- Nicotine is a highly lethal, horrifying poison. One drop of pure nicotine has been known to kill in less than fifteen minutes. Its taste is easily concealedd in sweet substances such as wine, soda, kool-aid, etc. Almost pure nicotine can be obtained from the round flat boxes of snuff. Pour the snuff out into a container and add enough water to cover it all. Let it soak for 24 hours then take a handkerchief and stuff it into a cup with the edges of the hand-kerchief over the sides. Pour the shit into the handkerchief so that the liquid is filtered out from the snuff. Squeeze the handkerchief to get out any excess liquid. Discard the snuff and pour the liquid into a small saucepan over a low fire. When the liquid has evaporated to about a small teaspoon of a thick dark substance your poison is finished. A lethal dosage is about two or so drops. ------------------ | NICOTINE SULFATE | ------------------ This is one of the most interesting poisons of mine. It is obtained as an insect poison found under several names. One of the most common is Black Leaf 40, found at any garden store. It is 40% nicotine sulfate. It is most effective if it is evaporated to a thin syrup. The interesting thing about nicotine sulfate is that it is absorbed through the skin. An effective way to use this is to carry it around in a softdrink then "accidentally" spill on victim. If he does not wash it off in a matter of seconds he'll be dead in a matter of minutes. Most likely, the victim will just forget about it if he thinks it is just a softdrink. ------------------ | HYDROCYANIC ACID | ------------------ Hydrocyanic acid (Prussic Acid) is one of the most poisonous compounds known. It is quite simple to prepare and is extremely deadly. A good way to use this is to put it in a water piston. Use a newspaper and proceed to walk pass the victim as you read the newspaper. When you near him squirt him in the face and continue walking. Before he realizes he has been attacked he'll fall unconscious. Within three minutes he'll be dead. To start the process you will the following items: Potassium Ferrocyanide This can be stolen from your school lab or purchased from a chemical supply house. Distilled Water Found at your common grocery store Sulfuric Acid Can be obtained by emptying the watery contents from a car battery and boiling it in a glass container until thick white fumes appear or you steal it from your school lab. Calcium Chloride Can be obtained by breaking up chalk and letting it soak in hydrochloric acid (obtained at a hardware store) and then drying it. Measure out 15 parts of potassium ferrocyanide and dump it into a flask. Next add 9 parts of distilled water and 9 parts of strong sulfuric acid (pour the acid slowly). Then take another flask and put in some coarse fragments of calcium chloride. Your apparatus should look like this: To air out flask Plastic Tubing _________________________ _____________________________ / | | Rubber | / / | | Stopper------- |Bucket with / | / ------- \ / |ice and / | | \ / ------- |water / | | ------- | | | / | | | | | | | / | | | | | | | / | | | | | | | \ | | | | / \ | \ ____|___| / \ / Acid \ | \ / | / \ /Potassium\ | \ / | / \ / Water \ | \/ | / Calcium \ / Mixture \ --------------------- / Chloride \ / \ / \ ----------------- ----------------- Plastic tubing (obtained from a tropical fish store) is ran from the acid, potassium, water mixture into a bucket full of ice and water. A small hole is cut near the bottom of the bucket just barely enough to fit the plastic tubing into so that the icy water does not leak. Then the tubing is lead into the flask containing the calcium chloride where the final product will be collected. Start by heating the acid, potassium, water mixture at a low temp, be sure to watch it as it may boil over the top. When the liquid covers the potassium chloride the action is stopped and the apparatus is allowed to cool. The liquid is put into a container with a good stopper. Light and air cause hydro-cyanic acid to lose its potency. The container should be wrapped in foil and stored in a refrigerating device. A few drops of hydrochloric acid will help preserve your cyanic acid. --Next load ripped from "Sucide Methods" by several authors-- POISON [1] makes most of these points: * Most drugs cause vomiting. To help stop this, take one or two anti- histamine tablets (travel sickness, allergy, hayfever tablets etc) about0 an hour before, on a fairly empty stomach. * If the drugs are in tablet form, take the first 20% as they are, and the rest crushed and dissolved / mixed in with strong alcohol / food. This helps the drugs to hit at the same time. * Alcohol helps dissolve the drugs. Don't drink any beforehand, but wash the tablets down with vodka or similar, and then drink afterwards while you're still conscious. * Use a large airtight plastic bag over your head, + something around your neck to hold it on. This transforms a 90% certainty method into a 99%... * Friday night is a good time if you life alone - nobody will miss you until Monday if you work. Bolt all the doors you can. Say you'll be out over the weekend visiting someone, so people don't expect a reply to telephone. * Some painkillers etc have less effect if you use them normally (tolerance). * In general, you need to stay away from medical help until you actually die, but there are exceptions to this (that have been pointed out in the text). Common drugs: * Cyanide (HCN, KCN) Dosage: 50 mg Hydrogen Cyanide gas, 200-300 mg Cyanide salts Time: seconds for HC, minutes Cs (empty stomach) hours (full s) Available: very difficult to get hold of Certainty: very certain Notes: It helps to have an empty stomach (since the salts react with the stomach acids to form H.C.). A full stomach can delay death for up to four hours with the salts. Antidotes to cyanide poisoning exist, but they have serious side effects. What you can do, is instead of taking the salts directly, drop 500mg or so into a strong acid, and inhale the fumes. This will be pure Hydrogen Cyanide, and you should die in 10 to 20 seconds. [3]: "Hydrocyanic acid is one of the most poisonous substances known; the inhalation of its fumes in high concentration will cause almost immediate death. Hydrogen cyanide acts by preventing the normal process of tissue oxidation and paralyzing the respiratory center in the brain. Most of the accidental cases are due to inhaling the fumes during a fumigating process. In the pure state it kills with great rapidity. Crystalline cyanides, such as potassium or sodium cyanide are equally poisonous, since they interact with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach to liberate hydrocyanic acid. This poison has been used for both homicide and suicide; in recent history, a number of European political figures carried vials of cyanide salt for emergency self-destruction and some used them. Death resulted from amounts of only a fraction of a gram. A concentration of 1 part in 500 of hydrogen cyanide gas is fatal. Allowable working concentration in most of the United States is 20 ppm. Two and one-half grains of liquid acid has killed. The acid acts fatally in about 15 minutes. The cyanide salts kill in several hours. The average dose of solution is 0.1 cc. [1, DGHS talking about KCN]: on an empty stomach, take a small glass of cold tap water. (Not mineral water nor any sort of juice or soda water because of it's acidity). Stir 1 -> 1.5 grammes of KCN into the water. More than that causes irritation to the throat. Wait 5 minutes to dissolve. It should be drunk within several hours. Consciousness will be lost in about a minute. Death will follow 15 -> 45 minutes later. * Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) Dosage: 20-30+ grammes (too many cause vomitting) Time: hours to days, variable Available: easy to get hold of (get soluble ones, & dissolve them) Certainty: unreliable Notes: Not recommended, fatal dose varies wildly, could cause liver & kidney damage instead of death. OD causes strange noises in your ears (like a video arcade) & projectile vomiting after about 10 hours. Medical help generally effective, so stay out of hospital for a couple of days. May cause bleeding in your stomach/upper intestines. Take with sodium bicarbinate (eg, bicarb. of soda), which speeds up the absorption (sp?) significantly. Take 1 or 2 antihistamine tablets. * Paracetamol (aka acetaminopren / tylenol) Dosage: 15+ grammes, 20+ is better Time: 10 hours fatal damage, but 2 weeks to actually die Available: easy to get hold of Certainty: fairly reliable Notes: Once 10-12 hours is up, you've had it, but you still live for a week or two after that. Probably better to wait 15 hours just to make sure. Horrible side effects during this time (some of which are: acute toxic hepatitis, renal failure, cerebral oedema, intra-abdominal bleeding, aspiration pneumonia, haemophilia). Too small dose causes severe liver damage. Accidental deaths are very common. There are few if any side effects before the damage becomes fatal; occasionally vomitting and nausea. * Sleeping tablets (see specific notes for each kind) See later entries for amobarbital, butabarbital, diazepam, flurazepam, glutethimide, chloral hydrate, hydromorphone, meprobamate, methyprylon, meperidine (pethidine), methadone, morphine, orphenadrine, phenobarbital [also check trade names in same entries]. * Alcohol (spirits preferably, your choice) Dosage: 1/2 litre vodka?, similar. Varies from person to person. Time: about 8 hours Available: good Certainty: unreliable Notes: will cause liver and kidney damage if 'rescued' before death. Drink it all at the same time, quickly as possible. Dosage is questionable, I don't have any figures. Taking the spirits as an enema is supposed to be a very quick way of absorbing alcohol, but a less unpleasant way is to inject it. The dosage it takes to kill you depends on whether you drink normally, the state of your liver, whether you pass out on your back or not. [3]: "The fatal dose of pure alcohol in an average adult is 300-400 mL (750-1000 mL of 40% alcohol) if consumed in less than one hour. Apart from the effects of overdosage, death after alcohol consumption can occur as a result of choking on vomit while unconscious. ..... Consequences such as liver damage occur after chronic consumption." Alcohol helps other drugs to dissolve. Don't drink it in advance, wash down tablets with it, & follow by drinking another few glasses of spirits. * Water Dosage: 14 litres mentioned Time: 12 hours or so? Available: always available Certainty: unknown Notes: works by washing out the salts in your body, until the cells fail (osmotic balance buggered up). You need to keep drinking continually until you collapse. Unusual method. Someone suggested it would also cause cramps. The following is something from [2]: "About a year ago a local newspaper carried a story about a woman who had drunk herself to death. Apparently she had ingested something mildly poisonous, and when she called her doctor asking him what to do, he told her to drink lots of water and see him in the morning. She got to it and managed to drink no less than 14 litres of water before the osmotic balance in her body was so upset it could no longer function and she died (don't know how quickly)". Calle: The above anecdote originally came from me, and the death described occured in Växjö, Sweden. Unfortunately I no longer remember which newspaper I saw it in. Recently, I was told about a similar case in San Antonio. It supposedly happened a couple of years ago and was reported in the local San Antonio Express/News. * Bleach and other corrosives (lye, drain cleaning fluids) Dosage: A bottle (litre or half litre) Time: Hours/days Available: Easily available Certainty: Uncertain Notes: Bloody painful - depends on your stomach getting corroded, the stomach acids escaping, and doing their dirty work in your vital organs. [1] says: "I have heard of people throwing themselves through plate glass windows in their death agonies after drinking lye." * Insulin (injected) Dosage: No idea Time: death in hours to days Available: Difficult to get hold of unless you're a diabetic or a vet Certainty: reasonable Notes: Supposed to be quite pleasant (eg insulin shock treatments used for some psychiatric condition). * Petrol (in lungs/injected) Dosage: "A Thimble-full" -20 ml? Time: Seconds/minutes Available: Common Certainty: I'm not sure of the dosage, but fairly certain if correct Notes: Can also use LPG (propane/butane) on skin surface (since these are light enough to go through the skin). Stick your hand in a bucket of propane and see how many seconds you last... * Oil of Wintergreen/Methyl Salicylate (in lungs/injected) Dosage: Probably similar to petrol (20 ml) Time: Don't know Available: Not available in concentration Certainty: Don't know Notes: Don't have enough information on this one to be able to say anything about it. If it is just taken normally, it is the same as aspirin. * Malathion (insecticide) (entry revised by Calle) Dosage: A few bottles, at least Time: 2 to 3 hours Available: From a large garden centre or DIY shop Certainty: not so good Notes: A correspondent mentions that the LD50 of this stuff is 1 g/kg in rats, and adds that there is not nearly that much in a bottle. He also mentions that it is treatable. Instead of this, he recommends parathion, if you really want to use an insecticide. * Phosphine gas from aluminium phosphide pesticide (ALP) Dosage: Single 3 gramme tablet (".. is enough to kill 10 people") Time: About 2 hours Available: Difficult. Used in India, sold on black market. Certainty: Without medical help, and using fresh pill, very good Notes: This is a common way of committing suicide in Indian villages. There is no specific antidote to this. The pills are 3 grammes of ALP, which produces lethal phosphine gas when it comes in contact with hydrochloric acid or water in the stomach. After severe vomiting, the victim loses consciousness, the blood vessels rupture, and body cavities fill with blood. While the pill is exceedingly lethal, some escape death because the rate of the gas' release declines with the pill's age and use, and exposure to moisture. Trouble with this one is the availability, and it also looks like a rather unpleasant. * Rat poison (Warfarin) Dosage: not known Time: Hours to terminal damage, days to actual death Available: Available Certainty: Certain given suffient dosage. Most probably treatable. Notes: This is one of the truly unpleasant poisons, along with Paracetamol/Acetylminopren. I think it causes cerebral haemorage (rat poison works by giving the unfortunate rat haemophillia). Doctors can't do anything about it, they just leave you to die in agony on an intensive care ward. Calle: Since human haemophiliacs usually live quite ordinary lives, the above sounds rather improbable. * Caffeine Dosage: 20 grammes (someone said 8 -> 10 grammes) Time: not known Available: Caffeine tablets available in Chemist shops Certainty: don't know Notes: I don't know very much about this. There isn't all that much caffeine in coffee, maybe 200 mg. * Potassium Chloride (injected in solution) / KCl Dosage: not known (try 20cc injection of strong solution) Time: Seconds to minutes Available: Widely available Certainty: Certain given correct dosage Notes: Causes heart attack (which is painful). May be difficult for coroner to realise it was suicide rather than a natural heart attack. An excess of K+ in the blood interferes with nerve signals, and stops muscles and nerves from working. So when it reaches your heart, the heart stops. * Nitrogen gas (or other inert gas) Dosage: Several litres uncompressed is minimum Time: Minutes Available: Try plumber, or welding supplies company Certainty: Certain Notes: This is really a form of asphyxiation, (see later), but is particularly good since you don't experience the lack of oxygen (what people really experience is the EXCESS of carbon dioxide). * Nitrous oxide (N20? NO2?) Dosage: Unknown Time: Minutes Available: Dentists supply would be good Certainty: reasonable Notes: Asphyxiate yourself with laughing gas. Nice. * Carbon Monoxide (CO) Dosage: 5% concentration or so? Time: Minutes to hours depending on concentration Available: You get it out of a car exhaust, you used to be able to use "town gas" (eg, stick your head in the cooker) but this is no longer available Certainty: Fairly certain, as long as you aren't "rescued" Notes: Causes brain damage. Calle: A correspondent from Denmark, where you still can use "town gas" to kill yourself, says that even though it's possible it's not a good idea. He tells of an incident where a family committed suicide by turning on the gas and waiting. Apparently, the heavier-than-air carbon monoxide leaked through the floor and reached the people in the apartment below. Not nice. The actual cause of death is asphyxiation, since the carbon monoxide binds tighter to haemoglobine than oxygen does (the oxygen gets crowded out, so to speak). * Chlorine gas Dosage: not known Time: not known Available: tricky Certainty: Good Notes: This was used in the first world war in the trenches. Probably very unpleasant, does something to the lungs. * Hydrazine Dosage: As produced by reaction Time: Not known, fortnight? Available: Bottle of bleach & bottle of ammonia Certainty: not known Notes: [2]: "This is no joke, D----. Several years ago at my high school, one of the janitors innocently mixed together half a bottle of bleach with half a bottle of of ammonia in a small closet where the cleaning fluids were kept. He passed out due to the hydrazine (not chlorine) gas released in the reaction between the two chemicals. This man was in agony for two weeks in an intensive care unit in a local hospital with the majority of the inside surface of his lungs damaged and untreatable before he got lucky and died." * Chloroform Dosage: not known, just put a splash onto a rag Time: several minutes probably Available: not known Certainty: good Notes: If you tape the rag over your mouth so that you get knocked out, you should die as you continue getting the stuff into your lungs. * Digitalis (Foxglove, Digitalis Purpurea) Dosage: not known Time: not known Available: extract from foxgloves Certainty: bad due to vomiting Notes: [4]: Gives you a heart-attack. Symptoms: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, headache, and slow irregular pulse. Also sometimes trembling, convulsions, delirium, and hallucinations. Its difficult to take a fatal amount because vomiting usually gets rid of it. * Yew (Taxus Baccata, the "English Yew") Dosage: not known Time: Can be very rapid (minutes), occasionally 3 or 4 days. Available: Grows wild in the UK, don't know about elsewhere. Certainty: not sure, but it sounds good if you eat enough Notes: [4]: All parts of the plant, _except_ for the fleshy red bit of the fruit, contain poisons. The seeds are poisonous, so if you eat the berries, chew them. Symptoms: nausea, abdominal pain, coma, death. The mode of death is a heart attack which occurs rapidly after eating sufficient. If no heart attack occurs, you'll probably survive. Sometimes the sudden collapse leading to death is preceded by lethargy, trembling, staggering, coldness, dilation of the pupils, rapid pulse that becomes weak, and convulsions. Other species in this genus are said to be equally poisonous. See "plants in general". * Mezerein, Daphnetoxin (Mezereon, AKA Daphne Mezereum, AKA D. Laureola) Dosage: "a few". Probably 10 or more. Time: not known Available: Garden plant. Seeds are particularly poisonous. Certainty: not known, dosage is questionable. Notes: [4]: The berries taste horrid, but you only need to eat a few to cause death. Symptoms: burning sensation in mouth, nausea, vomiting, stomach pains, diarrhoea, weakness, disorientation, convulsions, followed by death. The seeds can be dried and stored without affecting the poisons. Don't confuse this with laurels in the Prunus genus, Rosacea family. See "plants in general". * Atropine (Atropa Belladonna AKA Deadly Nightshade. Also potato fruits) Dosage: 5 berries in young children.. maybe 30 in adults? Time: 6 to 24 hours Available: from fruits of some plants in the potato family. Certainty: unknown, particularly dosage is questionable Notes: [4]: AB also contains hyoscyamine and hyoscine (scopolamine). Symptoms: dry mouth, flushed face, dilation of pupils, rapid pulse. Possibly also breathing difficulties, constipation, convulsions, hallucinations, and coma. AB is often confused with other Nightshade species, which aren't as poisonous. The berries are black in AB, and red in Woody Nightshade. In addition, the flowers are larger (1.2 in) in the true Deadly Nightshade. Present in unripe deadly nightshake fruits, fruits of potato, and fruits of other members of this family (not tomato though!), but stick with AB. See the "plants in general" entry. Calle: A correspondent mentions that Jimsonweed will also do, and that a specific antidote exists. * Oleander (Nerium Oleander. Poison similar to digitalis) Dosage: not known, but fairly small amounts. Time: unknown. Available: leaves, wood of the plant. From garden centres. Certainty: unknown. Notes: [4]: Deaths have been caused by using wood from this plant in fires, and making tea from the leaves. In a few hours there is abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, rapid pulse, and visual effects. Later, a slow, weak, irregular pulse and fall in blood pressure, followed by failure of heart. See the "plants in general" entry. * Death-Cap / Destroying-Angel toadstool (Amanita Phalloides) Dosage: Fraction of one can kill, but eat 1 or 2 just in case. Time: Week or so Available: Have to know what it looks like.. similar edible ones Certainty: Definite without med. treatment; unknown with. Notes: [5, Volume 7, pp591-592]: "Poisoning by toxic Amanita species is characterised by a delay in onset of 4 to 12 hours. At this point, nausea vomiting, colic-like pain, and diarrhea occur. There then follows a period of respite, which can last for two to four days. This phase does NOT signify recovery: damage to the liver and kidneys continues to develop and the respite gives way to hepatic and renal failure. Death usually occurs a week or so after poisoning.". See "plants in general". * Ricin (Castor oil plant, Ricinus Communis) Dosage: death has occured from eating 1 bean, but take more than 10 Time: within 3 to 5 days Available: From eating the castor beans Certainty: depends on ricin content of the beans. Pure ricin is deadly Notes: [2] and [4]: Symptoms begin within a few hours with abdominal pain, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea for several days. Decreased production of urine and a fall in blood pressure. Note that people have survived eating more than 10 beans, *with treatment*. Presumably the fatal dose without medical intervention is less. Surviving more than 3 to 5 days usually means recovery. Ricin is described as "..one of the most potent toxins known". In 1978 a Bulgarian journalist (Georgi Markov) was assassinated in London by being prodded with an umbrella. The umbrella had a tiny ball coated with ricin on its tip, which lodged into the dissident. He died a few days later in hospital. See "plants in general". * Colchicine (Acetyltrimethylcolchicinic acid, Autumn Crocus, Royal Lily) Dosage: 7 mg to 60 mg (why so wide variation?) Time: symptoms in about 4 hours, death in about 4 days Available: Easily available (from large garden centre) Certainty: certain Notes: [New Scientist article:] From the Autumn crocus (Colchicum Autumnale) / royal lily (Gloriosa Superba). One flower of CA is about 12 mg, so take at least five of them. 20g tuber of GS provides 60mg, single seed of CA provides 3.5mg (so take 18). Damages blood vessels and nerves, and stops cell division. Don't know whether its painful or not, but that bit about damaging nerves is worrying. I just _love_ the name of the acid! See See the "plants in general" entry. * Aconitine (AKA Wolfsbane, Monkshood, aconitum napellus, a. anglicum) Dosage: "a few grams" Time: 10 mins to few hours Available: Garden plant, so get from garden centre Certainty: unknown (can be treated in hospital) Notes: [2] and [4]: The poison is concentrated in the unripe seed pods and roots. During winter, the roots are particularly poisonous. Symptoms develop in less than an hour. Burning sensation, feelings of coldness, sweating. Later, numbness, vomiting and diarrhoea with abdominal pain. Finally, slow pulse, convulsions and coma. Death may occur within 2 hours. The poison kills by causing a cardiac failure, and it is painful. See the "plants in general" comment. * Cicutoxin (Cowbane, Cicuta Virosa) Dosage: ".. a few bites .. can cause serious poisoning or death". Time: a few hours or more. Available: rare in most parts of UK, don't know about elsewhere. Certainty: good, but resembles wild carrot & wild parsnip. Notes: [4]: The poison is strongest in the yellow juice of the underground parts. Symptoms after half an hour: burning of mouth, excessive saliva, flushing, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, dilation of pupils, and later a bluish tinge to the skin. Muscular contractions and convulsions, with difficulties in breathing are followed by unconsciousness and death, often within a few hours of eating the plant. See "plants in general". * Coniine, Gamma-Coniceine, others (Hemlock, Conium Maculatum) Dosage: unknown Time: unknown Available: Grows throughout UK, except north. Don't know about elsewhere. Certainty: unknown Notes: [4]: NOTE: There are many plants called "hemlock", some of which aren't poisonous at all. It can also be mistaken for wild parsley and carrot, and is in the same family as Cowbane. Symptoms appear in 15 mins to 2 hours. Initially burning and dryness of the mouth, muscular weakness leading to paralysis that affects the breathing. Sometimes also dilation of pupils, vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions, and loss of consciousness. If this is survived, birth defects may be caused in pregnant women. This is said to be the plant that Socrates took in 399 BC. * Oenanthetoxin (Hemlock Water Dropwort, Oenanthe Eroeata) Dosage: "..dangerously poisonous, even in small quantities". Time: Two to twelve hours. Available: Grows in chalky wet areas, particularly S and W Britain. Certainty: Fairly good, if you get the right species. Notes: [4]: The tubers contain more poison than the rest of the plant, particularly in winter and early spring, and may be cooked or dried. Symptoms within an hour or two, nausea, salivation, vomiting, diarrhoea, sweating, weakness of legs, dilation of pupils. Later loss of consciousness with convulsions before death. See "plants in general" entry. Same family as Hemlock. * plants in general (hemlock, foxglove, oleander) Dosage: N/A Time: N/A Available: garden centre Certainty: questionable Notes: [1] says: "Everything I have ever read about death from plant poisoning indicates that it is risky and painful. Symptoms range from nausea and vomiting to cramping and bloody diarrhea. .... .. Altogether, I consider poisonous plants as a means of exit far too unreliable and painful. No matter how desperate you are, don't even think about it!" * Nicotine (Rewritten by Calle) Dosage: extract from 100g tabacco? 40-60 mg pure. Time: Several hours, coma may set in much earlier. Much quicker if taken in large doses. Available: Easily available Certainty: Fairly certain, given a large enough dose. Notes This is what Mike wrote: "Soak 100 grammes of tabacco for a few days. You get a brown mess. Strain off the tabacco, then simmer slowly until most of the liquid has gone, leaving about 2 teaspoons of brown treacle-like stuff. Add it to your night-time drink, and never wake up. Someone said the other day that 150mg of pure nicotine would be fatal in seconds. See the "plants in general" entry." It is correct, as far as I have found out. It can be added that the effects include violent convulsions and that the direct cause of death is respiratory failure. Smokers should use larger doses than non-smokers. * Iron (diet suppliments) Dosage: unknown Time: unknown Available: diet, health food shops Certainty: good Notes: [2]: "Well it seems that iron pills achieve death. They oxydize in the stomach and eat a hole in it. The only reason I know this is that someone at my school just recently OD'd and died from this. It was ruled suicide since no person could accidently take that many iron pills. They didn't say how many she took or how many it takes to kill yourself though." [sounds unpleasant] * Cocaine Dosage: 1 ounce (don't know what that is in real weights..) Time: 2 to 3 hours? Available: Difficult Certainty: not known Notes: Read something in a newspaper... a coke dealer died after eating an ounce of it, when the police raided his house. Cause of death was a cardiac arrest 2 1/2 hours after the overdose. However, a cocaine OD is painful, and causes paranoia / breathing problems. One form of cocaine smuggling is to swallow condoms filled with the stuff. From time to time, a "mule" has a condom burst inside him, and dies in pain reasonably quickly. * LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) nonfatal Dosage: infinite! Time: never Available: who cares? Certainty: will not kill you Notes: LSD can't kill you by overdose.. you might go psychotic if you take tens/hundreds of thousands of times the normal dose, but thats hardly surprising, since you'd have to be insane to take that much in the first place. General warning - even for normal use, if you are depressed, it'll just amplify the depression, not lift it, and the chances of a bad trip are probably higher. Probably, the only way to kill yourself with this stuff is to drop two tonnes of it on yourself. Calle: I don't quite believe in what Mike is saying about psychosis here. As far as I have been able to find out, LSD works by catalyzing certain substances in the brain, and thus vast overdoses have no more effect than merely large ones. Once all the stuff in your brain is used up, there will be no more effect. A correspondent points out a case reported by The Journal of Clinical Toxicology where eight people snorted pure LSD Tartrate, beliving that it was cocaine. The amounts ingested was estimated to be from 1000 to 10000 times an ordinary dose. Half of them lapsed into comas, but all of them came out of it without any treatment. Some were given Valium for anxiety efterwards. On the whole, it seems that LSD is about as safe as a drug can be, despite much propaganda saying otherwise. * Heroin (morphine) Dosage: 120 to 500 mg in non-users. Time: unknown Available: From your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer. Certainty: unknown Notes: Combine it with alcohol, since a combination of alc & H is much more dangerous than alc or H alone. * Rotenone Dosage: very low, similar to cyanide Time: depends on dosage Available: extremely difficult Certainty: probable Notes: Rotenone is used by microbiologists to kill potentially dangerous bacteria cultures. It is extremely poisonous. Calle: A correspondent believes this entry to be erroneous, since in the litterature he consulted rotenone was mentioned as being used as an insecticide and not being all that toxic. * Mercury (salts, soluble) Dosage: 1 gramme of salts Time: unknown Available: unknown (what are the _soluble_ salts? how to make?) Certainty: good Notes: Note that contrary to popular opinion, pure mercury metal isn't all that poisonous. The soluble salts are, however. The "mad hatter" story refers to brain damage that hat makers used to get from using mercury salts. * Amobarbital (amytal, amal, eunoctal, etamyl, stadadorm) [this entry from [1]] Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 90 50mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable Notes: use an airtight plastic bag, and a rubber band to get a very effective method. Alcohol speeds it up and makes it more reliable. Take an antihistamine about 10 minutes earlier. Empty stomach. Dissolve most of them in drink / food, and eat the remaining ones first so that it all peaks at the same time. * Butabarbital (secbutobarbitone, butisol, ethnor) Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 100 30mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach * Codeine (combo. with Aspirin: Empirin compound no. I -> IV) Dosage: 2.4 grammes, typically 80 30mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it will no longer be effective. * Diazepam (valium, apozepam, aliseum, ducene) Dosage: 500 milligrammes, typically 100 5mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else (alcohol?) Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. Valium is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes it more certain. * Flurazepam (dalmane, dalmadorm, niotal) Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 100 30mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Gluthethimide (doriden, doridene, glimid) Dosage: 24 grammes, typically 48 500mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Chloral Hydrate (noctec, chloratex, somnox) Dosage: >10+ grammes, typically 20+ 500mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Hydromorphone (dilaudid, pentagone) Dosage: 100 -> 200 milligrammes, typically 50 -> 100 2mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it will no longer be effective. * Meprobamate (miltown, equanil) Dosage: 45 grammes, typically 112 400mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Methyprylon (noludar) Dosage: 15 grammes, typically 50 300mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Meperidine (pethidine, demerol, dolantin) Dosage: 3.6 grammes, typically 72 50mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it will no longer be effective. * Methadone (dolophine, adanon) Dosage: 300 milligrammes, typically 60 5mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it will no longer be effective. * Morphine (in Brompton's mixtures) Dosage: 200 milligrammes, typically 14 15mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it will no longer be effective. * Phenobarbital (luminal, gardenal, fenical) Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 150 30mg tablets Time: N/A Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain. * Secobarbital (quinalbarbitone, seconal, immenox, dormona, secogen, ..... == ..... seral, vesperax (combo with brallobarbital)) Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 45 100mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. [Vesperax is Humphry's favorite] * Propoxyphene (darvon, dolotard, abalgin, antalvic, depronal) Dosage: 2 grammes, typically 30 65mg tablets Time: death in an hour or so. Does not make you unconscious Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: suggest combine with something to make you sleep, then use bag Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach. Since this one doesn't make you unconscious for a long time, try combining with one that does, so you can use the good old bag method. * Pentobarbital (nembutal, carbrital only if in combo with pentobarbital) Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 30 100mg tablets Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes Available: needs to be prescribed Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an empty stomach.