And so, they're using right now, under the L.E.A.A. program, something called
anectine. Punishment for troublesome behavior within the prison Is being done by
drugs and shock, likely to be the most selected examples of programs that have madeuse of anectine - a derivative of South American curari. Anectine was originally used
as a beginning factor to electro-convulsive shock. Such shocks applied to the head are
so strong they can break and graze bones under the strain of resulting muscle
contractions. Since anectine paralyzed the muscles without dampening consciousness
or the ability to feel pain, by first injecting the inmates with it, researchers can turn
up the voltage as high as they want without cracking the inmate's skeleton when his
body is thrown into convulsions by the jolt.
What the anectine does, in short, is to simulate death within 30 to 40 seconds
of injection. It brings on paralysis first, with the small rapidly moving muscles in the
nose, fingers and eyes, and then in the diaphram and the cardiovascular system. As a result, the patient cannot move or breath and yet remains fully conscious, as though
drowning and dying. This from the 1974 publication, HUMAN BEHAVIOR.