Poisons

Poisons were in more use in the ancient ages than they are now. In modern days civillian killings are very popularly attributed to such crude instruments as clubs, guns and knives, the graceful art of poisoning has all but disappeared. This article will overview the highly technical art of poison technology.

What constitutes a good poison ?
Inorganic Poisons
Organic Poisons
Protection Against Poison
Delivery Techniques
Example : Mercury
Example : Digitalis
Example : Shellfish Toxin

What constitutes a good poison ?
There are several very important guidelines that help differentiate a 'good' poison from a 'bad' poison. The first and very important is that the poison should be tasteless and odorless. A poison having a very strong smell and taste would be rejected by the target before it is taken in. A poison should not cause 'shyness' in the target. That means the poison shouldn't have a biological effect in the target too early so as to cause him to reject the full dose; e.g. in a plate of food. An example would be if a restaurant eater notices someone else spitting out his food then he will spit it out too recognizing that there is a case of food poisoning. Another guideline is the consideration as to how quickly the poison will act as it relates to the purpose of use. A slow acting poison would allow for a retreat from the site of action after it is administered. A very important rule is that the poison to be used should be untracable with respects to its purchase. If you buy a poison online on the internet with your credit card and then use it to kill someone it will be easily traced to you and you will face the consequences. A poison manufactured at home with easy to acquire substances is a lot harder to trace. And finally the poison should be very hard to detect in the body after it is taken.

Inorganic Poisons
Inorganic poisons are considered inferior poisons attributed to the fact that the majority of them cause a slow death in the subject to be poisoned and in addition to that are extremely easy to detect in the body. It is said that even if the body is cremated the poisons are still detectable, nothing short of nuclear heat will eliminate them from detection. Having said all that they do have their advantages, they are very easy to acquire and they achieve the death of the subject just as well as any other poison. A very well known inorganic poison is Arsenic, other well known poisons are heavy metal elements such as Mercury and Lead.

Organic Poisons
Organic Poisons from nature or created by man are always considered the superior poisons. Because they constitute the simple elements of nature when they enter the body they are capable of decomposing and are thus not so easily detectable by an autopsy. Organic poisons are such as Digitalis or Shellfish Toxin.

Protection Against Poison
Different Poisons have different properties. A few poisons can be protected against by use of an antidote while some others have no possible way to protect against even after being hospitalised. Poisons commonly found in the home are very easy to deal with, to download a document on the subject of dealing with household poisons click HERE.

Delivery Techniques
The way the poison is given to the subject is as important as chosing the poison itself. There are many Black Ops procedures for delivering a poison to the target such as needles hidden in pens, poison darts. Very simply the subject's house can be broken into and the poison placed in the food or drink of choice or he can be served coffee with poison. Coffee is a favourite for serving poison as it hides any strange taste and odour of the substance. A scenario has been suggested where the subject engages in the injection of recreational drugs, such drugs can easily be tainted with poison and upon the subject's death all suspicion would lie on the drug seller supplying the drugs.

Example : Mercury
Mercury is the well known silver liquid metal found in thermomemters. Mercury alone is not a very good poison because the metal is unsuitable to travel effectively around the body's organs where it is insoluble. However in its vapor form or when combined with other chemicals is effective as a salt. Mercury Chloride is probably the worst, a person swallowing this salt will immediately have a stomach burning sensation and a metallic taste in the tongue. Soon after bloody vomiting and diarrhea. Soon afterwards the kidneys stop working and the flow of urine is stopped. Death can occur after an hour from a large dose or very probably from exhaustion a few days later.

Example : Digitalis
Digitalis has been overdone in the movies where a subject is poisoned without a trace to the autopsy. That of course is untrue. When a subject is poisoned with digitalis the chemical can be detected in the body in one of many ways. The loophole here is from the fact that Digitalis is prescribed as a medication to deal with heart attacks and an overdose of digitalis of only 3-4 times the prescription dose is fatal. With such a small difference between the prescription and the overdose it is difficult for the autopsy to establish whether the subject was poisoned intentionally or died from a heart attack.

Example : Shellfish Toxin
Also known as Saxotoxin this is the ultimate poison the world has ever seen. It is also called the CIA Shellfish Toxin due to an incident where the CIA used it to kill a target. It is effective several seconds after injection and is completely untraceable by an autopsy. 1 gram of this substance is enough to kill millions of people.