I'd like to preface this to hopefully help people not make rash decisions due to the fear that their suicide method will go "bad" and they feel forced to take it before they truly want to. Freedom of choice means everything.
There is a lot of misconception on here about how long both of these chemicals last before they are no longer useable. both SN and N are highly stable compounds in general when stored in a cool, dry, dark environment and unopened the change in potency will diminish very slowly over time. Even when stored in "unstable" conditions, they both will last for a very long time and the loss of potency is negligible. Almost all chemicals are good past their expiration date, an expiration date is not what you may think, " Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug."
[1] most drugs will last for decades past expiration, some even for centuries. In the US expired drugs are sold to the military at a discounted price since legally they are no longer acceptable to be sold to the general public.
Stability of Sodium Nitrite
First we will look at SN since it is far more commonly used. "Curing salt has no hard expiration date. If your curing salt is only salt and sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite, it's good forever. Salt itself never goes bad, though yellowing and other discoloration is common. Moisture is a potential problem as it attracts microbes. To prevent such threats, store curing salts in dry, moisture-lock, airtight containers and in a cool dry place, such as your pantry or a dry goods storage closet. Do not refrigerate or freeze curing salt."
[2]
Some people are worried that clumping lowers it's efficacy, this is not the case. Here is a picture of pure sodium nitrite
[3] and as you can see there is clumping. Small compounds will slowly stick together over time, it is natural and usually has nothing to do with it's efficacy.
View attachment 128403
Another article showing that is it highly stable
click here
This is a picture of an aquarium test strip that was used on SN that has been sitting in a bottle of tap water with a cap on for almost a year. previously it was believed you needed to use distilled water to insure sodium nitrite would breakdown into sodium nitrate at a much slower rate. considering this SN is still useable in very subpar conditions shows this is not the case as well as shows how stable it is as a compound.
View attachment 128405
This shows Sodium Nitrite is much more stable than previously thought, even in unpleasant environments.
Stability of Nembutal (pentobarbital)
Onto Nembutal, although it isn't talked about much anymore I still think it would be a good idea to show some information regarding it. In the past there was a lot of fear that it would go bad past the due date, as well as once it was opened you had to drink it in a certain amount of time. I would like to showcase why this is wrong.
I believe these two articles are the most notable and shows N in both it's stable and unstable environment and how it reacts.
Article 1:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26234474/
The biggest takeaway from this is, "We determined that the drug degraded at a maximum of 0.5% per year in our preparation (alkaline water/propylene glycol/ethanol) when stored in the dark at room temperature. "
Article 2:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23982045/
The biggest takeaway from this is, "the pentobarbital sodium in injection appears to be very stable, because the loss in potency was only about 6.2% after it was boiled in water for 1.5 hours."
This isn't really related but I thought I'd share this as well. There is an anecdotal report on Erowid about a person who took N recreationally for an extended period of time. The biggest thing to note is they found expired vet N had a worse taste. "some of the bottles were past a use-by date they seemed to be the most foul to drink and provided an inferior experience". An inferior experience in this context refers to the high and possibly that the potency of N was only slightly diminished.
An Experience with Pentobarbital. 'Nice but Zombie Effects Long Term' by Whynot
www.erowid.org
As you can see N is also a highly stable compound and will last long past it's shelf life with very little loss in potency. When the liquid turns cloudy it means nothing in terms of efficacy loss and is just an arbitrary rule in determining it is no longer good for sterile use in a medical setting.
I hope this thread has helped to clear up the air that Sodium Nitrite and Nembutal do
not go bad quickly. You do not have to make a rushed decision to ctb because of the fear that either compound will not work. both substances are highly lethal decades past expiration. Exercise caution and make sure ctb is the right choice for you.
[1]
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything
[2]
https://www.leaf.tv/articles/does-curing-salt-expire/
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_nitrite
