My grandmother introduced us to a world of old-school delicacies, including Jordan almonds, candy-coated in a thick hard shell, and in pastel colors.
On more than one occasion, I ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse. It may not have been cyanide, but it was an instructive childhood lesson in "too much of a good thing".
It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries. When the 1982 adulteration scandal hit the news, I honestly had mixed feelings about the message it sent to consumers.
> ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse.
Yes. That's what happens with a lot of sweets, and has absolutely nothing to do with "poisons".
Many things aren't good when consumed in massive quantities. All the way to water. Somewhere between 1-4l in an hour, hyponatremia kicks in. Goes all the way to falling into a coma. (Depends on body mass, amongst other things)
> It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries.
A simple AP chemistry class will do the same trick. Or just gardening at home. Or probably two seasons of House, M.D.
What's keeping us alive isn't lack of knowledge, but a functioning society where people shy away from murdering for their gain.
Like you, I more than once ate a large amount of Jordan almonds, both times after grabbing bags left on tables after a wedding. I'm 45, but the Tylenol tampering was still alive and well in my conscious even as a teenager, and to this day. I still check the safety seal and will bring anything back to the store if it's more than a few dollars, if the seal looks broken.
I've come to the conclusion that pain relief drugs are always a racket, and as my pain becomes exquisite in old age, I'm choosing to allow nature run its course, rather than go to great expense and effort to destroy my internal organs, by subscribing to them on amazon or something.
The American War on Drugs and ___ Epidemics are, in actuality, pandemics of pain, suffering, and people willing to pay any price.
Say again? How exactly is this so if it does really relieve certain types of pain?
Also, choosing to let nature run its course is usually a surefire path to needless misery with no benefit. Pain relief drugs don't necessarily destroy your organs. You're badly overblowing that and even if it were the case in a very gradual way, it could still be a better option than being destroyed anyhow and much more painfully by "nature running its course".
For one thing, patients who believe they have "arthritis" and other forms of "inflammation" are often deceived by terminology. Arthritis and other -itis conditions may in fact be -osis or something else degenerative, incurable and mostly untreatable.
But they're called "-itis" because it falls into a category of "something we can treat" and so NSAIDs and analgesics are recommended/prescribed. "-itis" also implies "something that may eventually go away" so it doesn't entirely destroy the hope of a patient but keeps them as a good customer, at least in the drugstore. A physician who diagnoses things he can't treat could lose his practice, his license and his reputation. The practice of medicine is fundamentally where they match up a list of drugs in formulary with patients and symptoms. Unless the patient sees an ad and homes right in on what they want in the first place.
Any genuinely effective pain medication will be abused. Surely we've seen those commercials that tout how few Aleves you can take, compared to gob-stopping handfuls of other pills. Incurable chronic pain is a cash cow for OTC drug makers, because anyone who's that hard-up will studiously ignore side- or long-term- effects, in favor of seeking short-term relief from whatever ails ye. It's basically illegal to sell anything effective in a store; needs must regulate and gatekeep and extract maximum insurance money from them. And if you really read the directions on the label, many OTC meds will shout "DISCONTINUE USE AFTER X DAYS AND SEE A PHYSICIAN!!!" because why stay on the weaksauce?
Also, any substance/chemical that's available to consumers, and could be abused or used in suicide is deliberately adulterated/nerfed to make it really unpleasant/inconvenient/expensive.
Look at cancer: often someone with an incurable cancer will undergo arduous, horrific treatments that are really more guaranteed to sicken/kill them than the actual tumors. I'm always curious to know stats on who dies from chemotherapy rather than cancer.
I'm a Christian and I firmly believe in redemptive suffering, a topic on which my pastor wrote a dissertation, and he accompanied me in suffering, and there's no suffering that won't bring about a greater good. Nobody can relieve mine except Christ Jesus and his mother, and I will gladly meet them when the time is right.
A child could die with 5-6 whole bitter almonds, but they are really, really bitter so it's not that easy to accidentally do that.