Daily Mail - 'Suicide websites' blamed for rise in drug-related deaths

edgarshade

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By Kerry Mcqueeney

PUBLISHED: 09:42, 30 August 2012

With reader comments

  • Increase in number of deaths where helium and barbiturates are implicated
  • The two drugs are increasingly being used in suicides, figures show
  • Campaigners condemn 'how to' suicide websites inciting people to use the drugs to take their lives

An increase in 'how to' suicide websites have been linked to a rise in deaths connected with helium and barbiturates. The two drugs have increasingly been used in suicide and contributed to more deaths last year than ecstasy, cannabis and GHB. The rise could be attributed, in part, to websites that incite people to take their own lives using barbiturates or helium, campaigners warned as they called for tighter internet regulation.
He told the Independent: 'We have known about these sites for some time and are lobbying the Government to take action and the media not to give them extensive coverage. 'But the Government seems to feel that the current legislation, which makes it illegal to encourage suicide, is enough.'

According to the ONS figures, ecstasy use was linked with 13 deaths last year while there were seven cannabis-related deaths.

More...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-rise-deaths-linked-helium-barbiturates.html
 
I remember seeing these suicide groups years ago and the the Darvon cocktail seemed to be the number 1 recommended way to get the job done. Though Darvon poisoning sounds like a really awful way to die and if it doesn't kill you your heart will be fucked beyond repair. Yet another reason why it's a good thing that poison is off the market.

Also how the fuck can anyone die from Cannabis? You can't OD on the shit so are they counting car accidents and suicides where THC was found in the toxicology report?
 
"Increase in number of deaths where helium and barbiturates are implicated"

I haven't heard of anyone using barbiturates since like 1960. And @ helium, all I can say is what the fuck???
 
Barbiturates are the first choice for physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, Dignitas use secobarbital I think, they are quite sought after by the suicidal.
Helium is an element...
What of it?
 
Yeah, I would say that all those elements are also drugs, given that they have an effect on the human body when administered. Some elements, of course, are not drugs, but I don't think there's any mutual exclusion there.
 
I agree with Captain Heroin. Does Helium affect any receptor, or does it mechanically suffocate a person? If only the latter is true, it isn't a drug.
 
Does it not have xenon-like anaesthetic activity? If not then excuse me.

Helium should have relatively weak general anesthetic activity due to its low atomic number. It will asphyxiate before reaching sufficient concentration to exert pharmacological activity. However, this is not because it is "an element".

ebola
 
The body certainly does have biological responses to presence of helium (a criteria for a drug - the substance must produce a biological response against the 'normal' biological state), so it can be considered a drug as helium does alter biological functions within the body. Singular Elements also play vital roles in countless biological processes (in a normal state) - think action potentials (K, Na, Ca, etc all contribute to how we continue to live), some more than others, so just cuz something is an element doesn't mean it can't be considered other things like a drug.
 
I seem to remember an article that said helium actually reversed the effects of some inhalant anesthetics in animals. As far as I know He is used as a simple axphyxiant for the simple reason that it's not carbon dioxide. It seems that only CO2 buildup in the lungs triggers the suffocation reflex, so if you inhale tons of inert gases you will simply fade off into nothingness as your brain cells die.

I don't see why this is an issue, people are going to commit suicide, let them do it in a relatively pain and mess free manner. Who cares if they are abusing barbiturates, they work excellent for euthanasia and in fact animals get administered seco syrup all the time. Of course they're going to be more deadly than XTC! People don't take MDMA as an end-of-life thing.

Personally I would rather come home to a peacefully dead person beside a bottle of pills or a tank of He, not finding them with a shotgun wound to the face.
 
^ yeah this. nitrogen is probably the best inert gas for this, but helium is widely available, and from all i understand, a fairly painfree way to die.
but how the fuck do people get barbiturates in middle/western europe? i know that secobarbital is used in switzerland for euthanasia purposes (9 grams if i remember correctly), and probably also in the netherlands and wherever else euthanasia is legal, but this still seems like an impractically hard to get drug to me, unless you're a vetenarian or something.
 
If i wanted to end this shit i would cook up a gram of that straight up raw afghan which we love to hate and then just say "See ya never motherfucker".I see alot of tourists looking for phenobarbital in the pharms around here though.....If you are terminal then i think its all good to end your suffering but if your just some pussy talking about how you cant handle life and shit, think about all the innocent people who would trade places with your pussy asses, doing life in Texas or motherfuckers that lose everything because of a couple hundred grams and wifey fucks off with another dude and your son isnt calling you daddy ever but you take the 6 years like a man because thats what you are. Suicide is for pussy's, i dont care how depressed you are! SEEK HELP! Now the terminaly ill should have the right to a nice dose of pure heroin to send them straight upstairs.
 
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