Used to be widely used years ago in Louisiana. Trick was to put the substance into a balloon which was located just behind the broad head. Once it hit, the balloon rolled back exposing the substance, which subsequently rendered the deer or other game down quite quickly.
To the best of my knowledge it was outlawed.
Here is a bit on it, from the following site,
http://www.lwaa.org/pdf/LGW_spring_2005 region7.pdf
The Dangers of Poison Pods by Sr. Agent Jason Dreher
On an early October evening, Agent Chad Menzina and I were working a complaint on a hunting club in West Feliciana Parish. The complaint was that some of the members were hunting deer with poison-tipped arrows, commonly referred to as “pods.” It was a complaint we have been working on for the past two hunting seasons.
Late in the evening, Agent Menzina radioed me that he had spotted a truck parked in the very back of the lease. I proceeded to the spot to meet him. In a large field, we observed a small food plot and a corn feeder in the far back corner. We proceeded toward the feeder. While en route, Agent
Menzina observed a subject in an elevated stand. As we walked toward the stand, the subject climbed down and approached us. As I conversed with the subject, checking licenses and such, Agent Menzina walked around the tree that held the stand.
After ascertaining that the subject had been hunting deer with a bow, I asked to see his arrows. He had three arrows, two with broad heads and one with no tip on it. When asked about the arrow without a broad head, he told us that he always carried a spare arrow. Being a bow hunter myself, this
struck me as odd. I asked the subject if he ever used poison pods and he stated, “Nope, I’m scared of them.”
About that time, Agent Menzina walked up and produced a 1,000 mg bottle of Anectine he had found on the ground behind the tree. After seeing the bottle, the subject broke down and told us everything. He also showed us where he had thrown the pod and broad head when he saw us approaching.
The man was cited and after we made the appropriate seizures, we departed.
The next day we talked to one of our local veterinarians about the Anectine. He told us that although it is not a controlled substance, it is a prescribed drug. Anectine is actually a horse tranquillizer that is not widely used due to the fact that the line between sedation and death is a fine one. The vet explained the process to us. If the Anectine was to enter the blood stream by a cut from a broad-head arrow, for instance, it would take anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds to paralyze a person. It would then take about two minutes to paralyze a person’s lungs and diaphragm, causing suffocation and eventually death. In short, Anectine is a dangerous substance and, unfortunately, it is a common poison used by some hunters who obviously don’t know the dangers involved, or choose to ignore those dangers.
While the idea of improving the kill rate of the bow and arrow, even with a slight wound, is appealing, the inherent dangers are very serious. Some hunters will doubtless be tempted to take shots far beyond their normal range, reasoning that even a scratch could cause the deer to die.
Before taking such a risk, these hunters should consider not only the possible fines or other penalties they will incur if caught, but also the potential of a fatal injury to themselves.
