I’ve got one word for you: Tungsten.
I skipped the literal interpretation of the question because it generally isn’t possible using the definition given. Very few mechanisms of death cause complete brain and other organ cessation within two minutes but that doesn’t mean the person is any less dead in practical terms because they will be soon enough and not conscious of that fact at least at the very end.
People often criticize movies and other works of fictions that depict a victim being poisoned and then keeling over and dying almost immediately. That criticism is usually justified because there are very few poisons that work quickly at all. Common ones like arsenic can take hours to days or even much longer to kill someone. Common antifreeze can poison someone fatally but it usually takes a long time for their kidneys to shut down from it. Even ricin and anthrax take some time to work.
I gave one example of a poison that can completely paralyze a grown man within tens of seconds and lead to a very quick death without immediate medical intervention. Curare is the jungle version of the drug and it is plenty fatal on its own when prepared properly and hits the right organ through an arrow or a simple blow dart but much more powerful versions have been invented for research use. The scary thing about all of the derivatives is that they don’t suppress consciousness or heart function at all. Instead, they induce a complete paralysis state much like ‘locked in syndrome’ before the person finally succumbs to complete respiratory failure because they can’t move their chest. The person still appears completely dead to any bystanders in the mean time even if they aren’t truly dead yet.
I just brought it up as a point of general interest related to the topic. There is no universally accepted timeline for complete death other than being instantly incinerated by a nuclear warhead so the original question is unanswerable as literally stated.
I suppose you could give a very high dose of the typical death penalty cocktail to someone. If they are already hooked up to an IV for some other reason, that would make things much easier but a large animal veterinary tranquilizer gun would probably work too as long as you are a good shot. You can probably skip the sedative drug if you just want to kill someone. You can use pancuronium bromide to paralyze them and potassium chloride to stop their heart. They will be a quick death if administered efficiently in lethal doses but I don’t know if it would make it under the 2 minute rule.
It also wouldn’t beat the rule of complete brain death within 2 minutes because that is an almost impossible goal in general just by definition alone.
I think this poison would also work if applied topically.
I am going to put in fentanyl as being one of the fastest acting- the Russians (un?)successfully used it in the Chechan hostage crisis to incapicitate the hostage takers faster than they could realize what was happening. However, 15% of the people including hostages died from it.
But I will put out there that it is a very potent and fast acting poison if given in high enough concentration.
I’ve also seen enough rabbits/guinea pig videos of those animals being gassed by sarin and its similars, that by inhalation #2/3 it is pretty clear that they wish they were dead.
Even with very cool lava it would still work, if applied from a sufficient distance.
With curare? Yes and no. It is compounded of several plants cooked together, the resulting goop is frequently kept in a small stoppered gourd jar and the darts dipped into it just before using. This one shows a different type of curare holder, but the one I have stashed at my parent’s house has a small thumb sized hollow gourd with a carven wooden plug for the curare.
I would imagine the compound used in the laboratory is much more refined and concentrating on specific neurotoxins instead of the more crude field version.
What is scary is sometimes they make a ‘tea’ out of the plants and instead of condensing it down, they keep it liquid and dump it in the river for fishing en mass:eek:
Well, I think that would technically be a death from burns, not a death from poisoning.
Right, it seems that the only poison that could lead to brain death in less than two minutes is a poison that somehow has the ability to tell the brain cells to “Shut down, right now” and have the brain cells cease function, almost on command.
Two minutes is a rather arbitrary number, but I use it because some works of fiction say things like, poison killing in ten seconds flat or something of that sort. Obvious exaggeration, but I figured brain death from oxygen had to be the minimum cut-off time for death.
I believe the fastest time to death (natural) toxin is the box jellyfish.
Do you need answer fast?
I can personally vouch for the rapid action of fentynal. In order to manage my pain I used it in patch form for about two years. The very first time I used it I put on the patch and in less than 10 seconds I was 100% pain free and I threw up within 20 seconds. It was unbelievable how fast the drug took effect. Of course I was opiod tolerant when I used it, I can’t imagine what it would do to someone who want. Well, yeah I do know, it would kill them almost immediately. I was warned by my doctor and pharmacist to never ever let one of my patches come in contact with anyone. I was also told that if it did it was a medical emergency and I was to waste no time in calling 911.
Maybe you could inject the person into the lava?
Isn’t there a snake that causes the victim’s blood to curdle within a few seconds?
I think this is the video I was picturing. I have no idea if all venom does this or just this snake.
Also, I don’t know if if makes a difference that the blood isn’t in the victim’s body.
Corrosives are typically included within the definition of ‘poison’. I think it is an arbitrary limitation to rwstrict the field to substances that kill living cells but leave them largely intact.
Not doubting your story, but do you recall the dose rate for that patch? You typo’d the critical sentence above, but I suspect you were saying you were already opiate-experienced. IME, your reaction is atypical although my experience is pretty limited.
One thing for sure: there’s no effective treatment for fentanyl overdose & it *is *heavily warned as being stupid-dangerous for kids, dogs, and the incompetent.
I wonder if you injected a large amount of a chemical like lithium carbonate, which interferes with the sodium channel in neurons, thus simply stalling nerve signals, if that might cause very rapid brain death. Combine that with a bit of tetrodotoxin and you would have a really quick demise.
Yes, but if someone falls into a vat of acid, their death isn’t usually described as a poisoning death (or, at least, I don’t think so.)
Narcan is an effective treatment for Fentanyl overdose.
Yes, something that inhibits nerve conduction. Many insecticides work this way.
Exposure to H2S above 1000ppm results in near instant death. cite : https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hydrogensulfide/hazards.html
Chlorine gas at 1000 ppm is fatal within a few minutes : cite http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+206