Today’s New York Times has a piece on the increasing use of so-called “bath salts.”* This passage pinged my skepticism meter (bolding mine):
Thinking of the way that tasers work, I question whether it’s even possible for a drug to render the user immune to a properly-administered taser. I’ve heard that some drugs make the user much less susceptible to the effects of pepper spray, and I’ve heard of people on PCP being able to tolerate a lot of pain. However, tasers don’t work by solely, or even primarily, by virtue of being painful. As I understand it, a taser works by hitting the victim with a jolt of electricity sufficient to disrupt normal nerve activity.
Can someone explain how bath salts, or any other chemical, could render someone immune to a taser without simply rendering them dead first? Can I start calling bullshit on this?
*A recreational drug, not that dyed, perfumed crystalline stuff you give your grandma for Christmas.
In theory drugs alone couldn’t counteract the primary feature of the TASER. Mind that properly “TASER” is an acronym and refers to a specific type of “less lethal” device.
The TASER specifically refers to a device that has a pistol grip just like a real gun, that fires a prong into the skin of a person and discharges a high amount of voltage into the person’s body from a stored battery in the device. The amount of voltage is high enough that if it is deployed properly a person will collapse to the ground and momentarily lose their ability to control their muscles.
However there are other devices out there, that are designed just to deliver a high amount of “contact pain” at the point where the probe contacts the body. These tend to be “direct application” devices which need to be placed manually on the body (meaning the person using it must be within grappling range of the person they are using it on.) The TASER device itself has two modes of operation, it has the “prong launching” function and it has the “charge-stun” function. Typically the charge-stun function will be used after the prong has been deployed and a need to continue using the device exists. However, because of the design of the weapon in “charge stun” mode, the device essentially is a tool of “pain compliance” (this is exactly the same utility of a police night stick or collapsible baton, they are designed to be used on parts of the body where they will not cause permanent harm but where they will cause immense pain and dissuade the person from resisting.)
If everything works “as planned” I don’t believe any amount of willpower can cause the body to resist the overwhelming amount of voltage from the discharged prong. However, the loss of muscular control is very short term, and you only get to fire those prongs the one time, after that a person may need to use the “charge stun” feature several times until a person stops resisting. Various drugs which might make someone less susceptible to pain or make them capable of operating in spite of high amounts of pain could counteract that feature of the TASER. Additionally, the “prong” function sometimes fails even when the prong contacts a person, and fails to deliver the voltage necessary to render the person unable to control their muscles.
[Adam Corolla] Now don’t get me wrong, if you don’t drink now because… Or screamed at the trooper “What do you have that Taser set on – pussy?” [/Adam Corolla]