Suicide Methods - Poison

Poison

Suicide can be committed by using fast-acting poisons, such as hydrogen cyanide, or substances which are known for their high levels of toxicity to humans. For example, most of the people of Jonestown, in northwestern Guyana, died when Jim Jones, the leader of a religious sect, organized a mass suicide by drinking a cocktail of diazepam and cyanide in 1978. Sufficient doses of some plants like the belladonna family, castor beans, Jatropha curcas and others, are also toxic. Poisoning through the means of toxic plants, is usually slower and is relatively painful.

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Famous quotes containing the word poison:

    They love not poison that do poison need.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Shall I let in the stranger,
    Shall I welcome the sailor,
    Or stay till the day I die?
    Hands of the stranger and holds of the ships,
    Hold you poison or grapes?
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    My heart pumps yet the poison draught of you.
    William Empson (1906–1984)