Death tourists in Mexico for suicide drug

Published on Saturday 2 August 2008 19:52

"COCAINE?" a hustler working Tijuana's seedy Avenida Revolucion called out, his voice not the least bit muted. "How about girls?"

When neither offering elicited the desired response, he tried another: "Cuban cigars?"

He could have continued for quite a bit longer reciting from Tijuana's extensive menu of contraband.

One product from this border town, though, trumps all others in terms of shock value – death in a bottle.

The drug pentobarbital kills by putting people to sleep, and it is tightly regulated in most countries. But ageing and ailing people seeking a quick and painless way to end their lives say there is no easier place on Earth than Mexico to obtain pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal.

Once widely available as a sleeping aid, it is now used mostly to anaesthetise animals during surgery and to euthanise them. Small bottles of its concentrated liquid form, enough to kill, can be found not on the shelves of the many discount pharmacies in but in Tijuana's pet shops.

"It is Mexico where Nembutal is most readily available," says The Peaceful Pill Handbook, a book that lays out methods to end one's life. Co-written by Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, an Australian group that assists people who want to end their lives, the book is banned in Australia and New Zealand. In other countries, though, it is available online.

The book, as well as seminars that Nitschke offers, lays out strategies for dying. The most trouble-free and painless form of suicide, Nitschke contends, is to buy Mexican pentobarbital, which goes by brand names such as Sedal-Vet, Sedalphorte and Barbithal.

Those in search of the drug, so-called death tourists, scout out the veterinary pharmacies in Tijuana.

Buying pentobarbital can be as easy as showing the pictures to a clerk and paying as little as 15 for a dose.

Pet shops throughout Tijuana acknowledge that foreigners regularly inquire about the drug. "We've probably had 100 people come in asking for the drug in the last couple years," said Pepe Velazquez, a vet and owner of the El Toro pharmacy.

Until El Norte, a regional newspaper, published an article telling how foreigners intended to use it – many shop workers said they assumed the customers were using the drug to euthanise their animals.

"We didn't have any idea what they were doing," said a sales assistant at a pet shop called California. "It's for animals. Everything here is for animals. We thought they were giving it to their animals."

It turns out that they were buying it for human consumption. Nitschke estimates 300 members of his group, most of them from Australia but some from the US and Europe, have purchased the drug in Mexico in recent years. Some save it for when their health fails to the point that they no longer wish to live. In a few instances, buyers took the drug in Mexico.

"To witness it, it looks as peaceful as can be," Nitschke said of death by pentobarbital. "I usually recommend that they take it with their favourite drink, since it has a bitter taste. I've never seen anyone finish their whisky or champagne. There isn't enough time to give a speech. You go to sleep and then you die."

But now that word is out that the drug is being used for human consumption, local authorities have sought to clamp down on unauthorised purchases. Shops are now supposed to sell the drug only to licensed vets who present a prescription.

Don Flounders, 78, suffers from mesothelioma, a rare and deadly form of cancer usually linked to exposure to asbestos. He had no problem getting pentobarbital in Tijuana.

"I went into the first shop that was advertised as being a vet and I showed the photo and they handed it over," he said.

Getting it home was more of a challenge. It is illegal to take pentobarbital into the US and Exit International says US Customs officers have seized the drug from at least three of its members. The group says no members have been caught with the drug by Australian customs officers.

But once he was home Flounders, who campaigns on behalf of euthanasia, talked to a television news crew about his purchase. His house was later searched by the Australian Federal Police. Assisted suicide is illegal in Australia.

"It was an affront," Flounders said of the raid. "I'm 78, and my wife is 85. I've got this incurable disease, and when four very big policemen came marching up the front steps it was very disconcerting."

Neither Flounders nor Belecciu have used the pentobarbital, and charges have not been filed against either of them.