Tuinal as a drug of abuse

Six case reports are presented to illustrate the problems of abuse of Tuinal (equal parts of sodium quinalbarbitone and sodium amylobarbitone). Over a four-year period in South Australia, Tuinal has risen from causing no deaths to be second only to pentobarbitone as a cause of death. While deaths from pentobarbitone overdosage are largely suicidal, Tuinal deaths are largely accidental, the result of a lack of tolerance in combination with alcohol potentiation.