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.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

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