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For a substance or drug to be useful as a Peaceful Pill two main criteria must be met. It must be, Reliable, and it must be Peaceful. Applying the Exit RP test to a salt like sodium cyanide gives some encouragement.
Reliability is high, few people will ever survive the ingestion of a sufficiently high dose of sodium cyanide. For a dose of 2gm of sodium cyanide, R=10.
There is also a correlation between the size of the dose and the speed of death and this minimises the chance of any adverse symptoms developing.
In terms of Peacefulness, the mixed accounts make this a difficult characteristic to assess. Clearly the size of the dose matters, if one is to minimise symptoms. Preparation is also important. The toxic effect is produced when stomach acid acts on the salt producing HCN which is then absorbed by the gut into the blood stream. This process is facilitated by dissolving the salt in cold water and drinking on an empty stomach where the gastric acid content is high.
An alternative is to place the cyanide salt into a treated gelatin capsule. Taking 2 x ‘00’ capsules (2.5gm) with an acidic drink (lemon juice, vinegar) creates the optimum conditions in the stomach. The delay can also usefully be employed to induce sleep with the addition of a strong soporific (sleeping tablet).
Taken in this manner the likelihood of a peaceful cyanide death is increased significantly. (P= 5)