Discussion Is CTB easier or harder now than in the past?

[symphony]

Give me your best arguments. Do individuals today have better or worse access to peaceful ends to their life, and why?

 

[NSA]

Depends on how far back you're talking. Pre-industrial revolution, things like drugs and inert gas didn't exist. Hanging, drowning, or some poisonous plant was it. I once read an article on medieval suicides that even talked about some guy running head first into a wall mounted spike to die. nasty shit.

I think ease of dying probably peaked in 60s/70s? Whenever you could just get n or similar drugs super easy. It's all been downhill from there.

 

[motel rooms]

Hanging, drowning, or some poisonous plant was it.

Jumping off cliffs has always been popular.

 

[Red Scare]

In the time of patent medicine, when everything contained opium or morphine, I imagine it was pretty easy.

People have long known that growing poppies in their garden provided an easy and effective form of analgesia. It's easier than you think to od on poppy tea.

 

[NSA]

I can buy poppy seeds at the garden center. I imagine they're not quite the same thing though

 

[motel rooms]

It's easier than you think to od on poppy tea.

Where did you read that?

 

[Red Scare]

Where did you read that?

I know from experience. But like all things drugs I first read about it on erowid. It can be pretty potent. Especially if you are brewing a proper tea using the pods, aka poppy straw.

You can even take just the seeds and put them into a gallon of water, shake vigorously on and off for a half hour, strain the liquid, and you should have a cup of liquid containing enough opium to get you pretty high. Kids have od'd doing this. With any cup of poppy liquid, best to sip it slowly until you feel it's effects, never gulp it.

@noone2 You can't use just any seeds like you buy in a McCormick spice shaker, those have already been washed, it's got to be from the bulk section of an organic food store like Whole Foods.

ymmv

 

[NSA]

Time to grow...

 

[FogFilledLife]

Easier in terms of method, harder in terms of will.

 

[Al_stargate]

I was also wondering how people back in medieval times killed themselves, since life was so tough back then. Did some googling but couldn't find anything special. Hanging and drowning was around for a while. No special potions or secret knowledge of poisonous plants. Unfortunately, dying back then must've been an absolutely agonizing experience.

 

[NorseHel]

I was also wondering how people back in medieval times killed themselves, since life was so tough back then. Did some googling but couldn't find anything special. Hanging and drowning was around for a while. No special potions or secret knowledge of poisonous plants. Unfortunately, dying back then must've been an absolutely agonizing experience.

Now I'm imagining SS in medieval times... secret meetings in the local tavern's basement to discuss the best ways to "HTC (hop on the cart)".

 

[jandek]

For most of history, it probably was not easier, although there seems to have been a relatively brief window where access to potent drugs and poisons made things quite easy to ctb if someone wanted to. For example, the morbidly depressed Rudolf Wittgenstein (Ludwig's brother) went to a bar in Berlin and ordered a glass of milk, into which he casually poured a lethal dose of cyanide. He died shortly after. Honestly, if I had easy access to cyanide like that, I'm not sure I'd be here.

 

[Red Scare]

Time to grow...

California poppies contain no opium, they are not a proper poppy. It needs to be of the papaver somniforum variety.

I was also wondering how people back in medieval times killed themselves, since life was so tough back then. Did some googling but couldn't find anything special. Hanging and drowning was around for a while. No special potions or secret knowledge of poisonous plants. Unfortunately, dying back then must've been an absolutely agonizing experience.

People resorted mostly to poisoning, hemlock was pretty popular as a method to ctb throughout most history. The most notable example being Socrates.