Phrases like "pulling the teeth", "drawing out the poison" and, less vividly, "forcing the health secretary to make concessions" tip with practised ease from Lib Dem lips.

BBC: Living with the NHS bill

The lilies, it turned out, contained a poison, later dubbed cyclopamine, that stunted developing lamb embryos.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Another concern is whether the cure may, in fact, turn out to be another kind of economic poison.

FORBES: Europe's Elixir Could Turn Out To Be Poison

Most odd for as Paracelsus pointed out centuries ago it is the dose which is the poison.

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Since the protein needed to transform 5-fluorocytosine could only be churned out by souped-up stem cells, only the gliomas were exposed to the poison, killing them but sparing normal tissue, which the stem cells ignored.

ECONOMIST: Cancer treatment