"odor" of A. ferox has a "narcotic effect" and that exposure to its pollen can cause pain and swelling of the eyes. They note also that poisonings have occurred through accidental inhalation of dust from the powdered root during its preparation for medicinal purposes. Yet more plausibly, the contact of unprotected human skin with the juice of damaged plant tissues, caused by walking through a dense stand of the plant could undoubtedly lead to poisoning, since the alkaloids present in the notoriously toxic genus Aconitum can be absorbed through such skin - particularly if it be damaged. Adulteration of alcoholic drinks Plant material or extracts derived from various Aconitum spp. including A. ferox has, on occasion, been added, in small quantities, to Indian alcoholic drinks to heighten their intoxicating effects, a dangerous practice which has not only caused drinkers to exhibit symptoms of poisoning, but also led occasionally to actual fatalities. Use as a (potentially lethal) Aghori entheogen Aghori, left-hand path, tantric, Shaivites (devotees of the Hindu deity Shiva) smoke the dried roots of Aconitum ferox, combined in a mixture with cannabis flowers, in a practice that is part consciousness-expansion by entheogen, part ordeal by poison. Aghoris, no strangers to the use of all manner of dangerous drugs (such as Datura metel), warn of the extreme danger posed by smoking mixtures containing aconite, and restrict their use to the most experienced adepts of their particular school of Shaivism, as being potentially lethal. Drug-induced, altered states of consciousness comprise at least three elements : the effects of the drug upon the brain and body, set and setting. Given that Aghori tantrics are charnel ground ascetics who pursue moksha (spiritual liberation) in settings of extreme horror, venerate wrathful deities (principally Bhairava, his consort Bhairavi, Dhumavati and Bagalamukhi) and find in Aconitum ferox a drug with unpleasant somatic effects warning its users (rightly) of possible death, it is clear that the experience evoked by the smoking of Aconite in such circumstances is likely to be one of dysphoria (albeit dysphoria sought consciously, in pursuit of the deeper euphoria of advaita or realisation of the oneness of all being). Lakhvir Singh murder case The use of A. ferox as a criminal poison recently gained notoriety in the U.K. as a result of the murder trial of a Ms. Lakhvir Singh, a Sikh woman from Southall (a suburban district of the London Borough of Ealing).