A veterinary center, rear, featured in a euthanasia book.

By MARC LACEY

TIJUANA, Mexico - “Cocaine? a hustler working Tijuana’s seedy Avenida Revolucion called out on a recent night, his voice not the least bit muted.
“How about girls?
When neither offering elicited the desired response, he tried another: “Cuban cigars?
He could have continued for quite a bit longer reciting from Tijuana’s extensive menu of contraband. One product from this border town, though, beats all others in terms of shock value: death in a bottle, a liquid more potent than even the strongest tequila.
The drug, pentobarbital, literally takes a person’s breath away. It can kill by putting people to sleep, and it is tightly regulated in most countries. But aging and ailing people seeking a quick and painless way to end their lives say there is no easier place on earth than Mexico to obtain pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal.
Once widely available as a sleep aid, it is now used mostly to anesthetize animals during surgery and to euthanize them. Small bottles of its concentrated liquid form, enough to kill, can be found not on the shelves of the many discount pharmacies in Tijuana but in its pet shops, which sell a wide variety of animals, as well as medications and other supplies for them.
“It is Mexico where Nembutal is most readily available, says “The Peaceful Pill Handbook,’ a book that lays out methods to end one’s life. Co-written by Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, an Australian group that helps people who want to end their lives early, the book is banned in Australia and New Zealand. In the United States, though, it is only a few mouse clicks away online.
The book, as well as seminars that Mr. Nitschke offers, lays out strategies for dying. The most trouble-free and painless form of suicide, he contends, is to buy Mexican pentobarbital, which goes by brand names like Sedal-Vet, Sedalphorte and Barbithal.
Those in search of the drug, so-called death tourists, scout out the veterinary pharmacies that abound in Tijuana. The shelves are fully stocked with tick medication for dogs, vitamins for horses and an array of bottles and boxes that make little sense to anyone but a veterinarian.
Mr. Nitschke’s book, however, provides glossy photos of the many versions of pentobarbital that are most suitable for suicide. Buying pentobarbital can be as easy as showing the pictures to a clerk and paying as little as $30 for a dose.
Pet shop clerks throughout Tijuana acknowledge that foreigners regularly inquire about the drug. “We’ve probably had 100 people come in asking for the drug in the last couple years, said Pepe Velazquez, a veterinarian and owner of El Toro pharmacy.
Until El Norte, a regional newspaper, published an article recently that detailed how easy it was to buy pentobarbital many store owners and clerks said they assumed the customers were using the drug to end the lives of their animals.
“We didn’t have any idea what they were doing, said a sales clerk at a pet shop called California. “It’s for animals. Everything here is for animals. We thought they were giving it to their animals.
It turns out that they were buying it for human consumption. Mr. Nitschke estimates that 300 members of his group, most of them from Australia but some from the United States and Europe, have bought the drug in Mexico in recent years.
“To witness it, it looks as peaceful as can be, Mr. Nitschke said of death by pentobarbital. “I usually recommend that they take it with their favorite drink since it has a bitter taste. I’ve never seen anyone finish their whiskey or Champagne. There isn’t enough time to give a speech. You go to sleep and then you die.
But now that word is out that the drug is being used for human consumption, local authorities are seeking to control unauthorized purchases. Shops are now supposed to sell the drug only to licensed veterinarians who present a prescription.
An Australian who bought the drug in Mexico, Caren Jenning, was convicted in June of accessory to manslaughter because a friend, Graeme Wylie, who had advanced Alzheimer’s disease and had long expressed a desire to end his life, used it to commit suicide two years ago.
Ms. Jenning has terminal cancer, said Sam Macedone, Ms. Jenning’s lawyer. He said it was terribly sad “that we put someone like this through all that when all she did was help a friend get where he wanted to go.