A pill for committing suicide quickly.
Description based on Crypto Museum. The International Spy Museum describes the L-pill (L for lethal) as a poison pill that an operative can use to take their own life, for example if captured.1,2
The decision to issue such a means rested with the service's leadership. According to B. G. Royden's article in Studies in Intelligence, the Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev, a CIA source in Moscow, asked for poison in April 1979 because, as he wrote, “I would not like to carry on a conversation with organs of the KGB.” The Director of Central Intelligence refused. Tolkachev repeated the request (including in June 1980); in the spring of 1983 he stated that he was carrying poison he had obtained himself. The article does not say where he got it.3
Sources
- Crypto Museum, Glossary of covert expressions
- International Spy Museum (Washington, DC), Language of Espionage (glossary)
- Barry G. Royden, ‘Studies in Intelligence’ 47 (3), 2003 (CIA), Tolkachev, A Worthy Successor to Penkovsky: An Exceptional Espionage Operation
Checked: 4 November 2026