Starbucks Poisoner

This morning I checked with fascination for an update on the "Starbucks Poisoner".  ABC News had this report.   Two interesting tidbits from this report.  The alleged poisoner was described as a chemist.  She worked at a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary developing drug delivery systems.  You would think an expert on drug delivery could figure out a better way to deliver a poison.  Dart gun maybe?  an umbrella?  Clearly no creativity.  The news report called her a chemist rather than a pharmacist.  I will be be sure to remind our students that they two can become "chemists".  Hopefully their moral compass will be pointing a little straighter. 

The other interesting tidbit is that the poison, rubbing alcohol, was in lethal amounts.  Two bottles, mixed with juice is not likely a lethal dose.  Rubbing alcohol is most frequently isopropyl alcohol.  It is more intoxicating than ethanol.  It is also a frequent substitution for ethanol with some needy people run out.  More intoxicating means a couple of shots of isopropyl will get you drunker than a couple shots of booze.  So in theory it is more lethal than ethanol.  People do drink themselves to death, both acutely and chronically.  A novice drinker can put themselves into a coma with 9 - 12 ounces of ethanol.  More is needed to be make you forget to breath and be lethal.  Isopropyl would take a little less.  But a bottle (12 oz) of juice that was pure isopropyl would be only a start.  In addition, isopropyl is very hard on your stomach.  Most novice drinkers would vomit it back up before it is absorbed. 

So is isopropyl alcohol a poison? Yes.  Can you drink enough to induce death? Yes.  Did these two bottles spiked with isopropyl alcohol have to cause death?  Very unlikely in an adult.    

Nonetheless, I am sticking with Fiddleheads and Alterra for my coffee.