Toxidrome: On Dr. James Ketchum’s Infamous Experiments with BZ

BZ, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, is a Frankenstein monster of a drug, inspired by natural compounds from nightshade plants.

It’s something very few chemists have even heard of. This is a weapon, an incapacitating agent that makes LSD, PCP and mushrooms seem like varieties of herbal tea. This isn’t stuff you can find on the black market or even in the darkest recesses of the dark web for that matter. BZ never caught on. It never became a thing. Anyone who was ever exposed ended up too terrified to relive the experience, many of them stating the effects are too awful, even for use in warfare, on the enemy.

Even for those with an interest in extreme and exotic drugs,
even for the suicidal and certifiably insane, BZ never developed a fanbase.

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Christopher Rankin is a scientist and the author of Enter the Uncreated Night, Ann Marie's Asylum (Volume One: Master and Apprentice), Creating Monsters and his latest novel, Break the Bastion. He studied engineering at Rutgers University and received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Enter the Uncreated Night
Psychologist Oscar Loste is facing the most confusing and frightening case of his career. Six-year-old Beth Bardo is displaying bizarre behavior, including interaction with an imaginary friend she calls Mister Smiler. This invented character supplies Beth with an impossible degree of knowledge about everything from science to ancient cultures to Oscar’s own secrets. The little girl’s parents, a highly-educated couple who also happen to be one of the wealthiest in the country, seem as bewildered as Oscar over Beth. The more he gets to know the little girl and her family, the more Oscar slips into chaos. Self-medication with a mysterious cough syrup recently taken off the market is plaguing him with strange hallucinations and fueling his obsession with the case. As the chilling truth about Beth and Mister Smiler unfolds during her therapy sessions, Oscar must face consequences beyond his imagination.
www.amazon.com/Enter-Uncreated-Night-Christopher-Rankin-ebook/dp/B00PMY57KM/