I’m aware that there have been (and may still be) cases where certain soldiers, spies, etc. carry in their mouths a cyanide pill that they are to swallow in the event of capture. The purpose being, so that they die instantly rather than face torture.
A scene in a movie I saw recently involved a captured spy doing this. He swallowed the pill and, within seconds, was foaming at the mouth. He appeared to be in pain for a matter of seconds, and then he was gone.
Is this how it works IRL? Is the process quick? Painful? Does it produce foaming at the mouth?
It does appear to be quick. Recently Michael Marin was pronounced guilty of arson; the video shows him, immediately after the verdict is read, sneaking a cyanide pill into his mouth. This article says he collapsed minutes later, and died on the way to the hospital.
It didn’t work so well for the assassins of Archduke Ferdinan.
Their cyanide was old, and just made them sick. It must have been sooooooo embarrassing.
Here’s Wiki’s explanation. Essentially it causes all your individual cells to almost instantaneously suffocate (i.e. chemically block their ability to process Oxygen). Also, for best results agents are told to bite down on the capsule and rupture its contents into their mouths, not swallow it and wait for it to be dissolved by the stomach…
HOW did their cyanide degrade? Not arguing that it did or did not happen, I’m just puzzled HOW cyanide would degrade such that it was no longer lethal?
“Minutes” is pretty quick. Not as quick as a gun to the temple, but faster than a lot of other poisons.
Convulsions may or may not be painless, depending on whether one is conscious while they are occurring.
That said, it may not be pleasant. the CDC lists abdominal pain and irritation/corrosion of the lining of the esophagus and stomach as symptoms for ingestion of KCN and NaCN. Presumably swallowing a capsule would protect the esophagus, but the stomach would likely still suffer.
Foaming at the mouth is not listed as a symptom; I’m guessing this is a bit of artistic license by Hollywood to provide a visual indicator that the character has indeed ingested a poison of some sort.
They are talking about sublingual administration. A medication that dissolves under the tongue will enter the bloodstream more rapidly than one that dissolves in the stomach. The stomach is, of course, more convenient so most of our common drugs are swallowed whole. Sublingual medication is usually used when a person needs the drug in their body as fast as possible (for example, when you have been captured and want to commit suicide).