Alcohol and barbiturates can do what?

Answer 1

Alcohol is central nervous system depressant. Barbiturates are central nervous system depressants. When take together in large doses they can kill a person. Their CNS will become so depressed it will stop telling them to breathe.

Built in defense mechanisms:

The first thing your body will do is vomit trying to keep you from putting more alcohol into your body. If that doesn't work and you keep drinking you will pass out. If you have chugged alcohol it might continue to be absorbed into your body after loss of consciousness. This can result in death.

Barbituates are dangerous because you can circumvent the vomitting with alcohol and go straight to loss of consciousness and death.

This is one reason benzodiazepines were invented. Much harder to over dose on