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In the Breaking Bad episode "Salud" several people drink poisoned liquor, including the poisoner. The poisoner survives because he induces vomiting soon after d

In the Breaking Bad episode "Salud" several people drink poisoned liquor, including the poisoner. The poisoner survives because he induces vomiting soon after drinking and has medical resources prepared to treat him afterward. That wasn't what I expected. I actually expected the poisoner to have taken prophylactic naloxone and served liquor poisoned with a potent, short-half-life opioid like sufentanil. It could kill his enemies directly via respiratory depression or just render them unconscious so he could drag them all into the swimming pool to drown. This would be the modern version of the old murder mystery trick "poisoner gradually builds up his tolerance to arsenic from small doses, then consumes arsenic-poisoned food/drink along with the victim." It would have the advantage of not being as hazardous or laborious as building up a tolerance for arsenic. It would also have been a clever chemistry based approach to murder in a series that often showed off some bit of chemistry. I don't know if this naloxone/opioid poisoning trick has been used in other shows or published works. A quick search for "murder" "mystery" "naloxone" didn't turn up anything likely.

zabzonk 6y ago
> poisoner gradually builds up his tolerance to arsenic from small doses, then consumes arsenic-poisoned food/drink along with the victim Probably most famously in "The Princess Bride" (not arsenic, though).
- Blahah 6y ago
  Probably not, at least as a proportion of the population, given that by the 1930s the entire reading public of the USA and UK knew about arsenic eaters. Probably most famously in Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (1930)[0]. Also taught in schools across the British Empire in the early 1900s would have been the stories of King Mithridates[1], or of the Arsenic eaters of Styria (see this 1869 Scientific American Article [2]). 0: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/may/09/chilean-arsenic-eaters-classic-work-of-crime-fiction-strong-poison-dorothy-l-sayers https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/may/09/chilean... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI#Mithridates'_antidote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI#Mithridates'_an... 2: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arsenic-eaters-of-styria https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arsenic-eater...
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
    Isn't it sad that an article written in the 1860d contains more interesting content and actual data than even the average article or op ed price today? Regardless, that was a very interesting read!
    - renewiltord 6y ago
      That's just survivor bias.
- dan_hawkins 6y ago
  > (not arsenic, though) Iocaine. I bet my life on it!
reitzensteinm 6y ago
He also took charcoal tablets. No idea if that would actually make a difference.
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> It would also have been a clever chemistry based approach to murder in a series that often showed off some bit of chemistry. It wasn't Walter White doing the poisoning. The character whose plan it was was not a chemist; it would be out of character for him to solve his problems with esoteric chemistry.
- kadoban 6y ago
  The character does know drugs well (wouldn't this be more drug knowledge than chemistry?) and interacts with at least two ~trusted chemists regularly. He'd also have many available people to ask for help, including a medical doctor who is definitely in on the plan. If I had to guess, it probably just worked out better in terms of story and visuals the way it was done. (going from memory, take with salt): the scene with him vomiting up the poison was a nice quirky/mystereous start to the reveal, and having to rush him to medical assistance both added suspense and gave a reason that Mike could be wounded (to add realism) and be treated by the doctor (to not lose the character).
permo-w 6y ago
Seems a bit odd that that didn’t turn anything up, since naloxone was a fairly key element in the excellent, and very recent murder mystery Knives Out

zabzonk 6y ago

> poisoner gradually builds up his tolerance to arsenic from small doses, then consumes arsenic-poisoned food/drink along with the victim Probably most famously in "The Princess Bride" (not arsenic, though).

Blahah 6y ago
Probably not, at least as a proportion of the population, given that by the 1930s the entire reading public of the USA and UK knew about arsenic eaters. Probably most famously in Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (1930)[0]. Also taught in schools across the British Empire in the early 1900s would have been the stories of King Mithridates[1], or of the Arsenic eaters of Styria (see this 1869 Scientific American Article [2]). 0: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/may/09/chilean-arsenic-eaters-classic-work-of-crime-fiction-strong-poison-dorothy-l-sayers https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/may/09/chilean... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI#Mithridates'_antidote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI#Mithridates'_an... 2: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arsenic-eaters-of-styria https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arsenic-eater...
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  Isn't it sad that an article written in the 1860d contains more interesting content and actual data than even the average article or op ed price today? Regardless, that was a very interesting read!
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    That's just survivor bias.
dan_hawkins 6y ago
> (not arsenic, though) Iocaine. I bet my life on it!

reitzensteinm 6y ago

He also took charcoal tablets. No idea if that would actually make a difference.

thaumasiotes 6y ago

> It would also have been a clever chemistry based approach to murder in a series that often showed off some bit of chemistry. It wasn't Walter White doing the poisoning. The character whose plan it was was not a chemist; it would be out of character for him to solve his problems with esoteric chemistry.

kadoban 6y ago
The character does know drugs well (wouldn't this be more drug knowledge than chemistry?) and interacts with at least two ~trusted chemists regularly. He'd also have many available people to ask for help, including a medical doctor who is definitely in on the plan. If I had to guess, it probably just worked out better in terms of story and visuals the way it was done. (going from memory, take with salt): the scene with him vomiting up the poison was a nice quirky/mystereous start to the reveal, and having to rush him to medical assistance both added suspense and gave a reason that Mike could be wounded (to add realism) and be treated by the doctor (to not lose the character).

permo-w 6y ago

Seems a bit odd that that didn’t turn anything up, since naloxone was a fairly key element in the excellent, and very recent murder mystery Knives Out