[5] The plant formerly grew abundantly at Sandakphu, which is a mountain peak (3636 m; 11,930 ft) in the Singalila Ridge, forms the highest point of the Darjeeling Hills and lies on the border between the Indian State of West Bengal and Nepal.

[7] With due caution in regard to its extreme potency and toxicity (and the consequent danger of overdose), the plant has long been used in the folk medicine (incorporating Ayurvedic and sometimes also homeopathic elements) of the Indian state of Sikkim on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau.

[7] After unspecified "proper curing" aimed at "mitigation of the virulent poison" the drug prepared from the tuberous root is much used as an analgesic for the relief of chronic pain.

[11] However, given the extreme toxicity of Aconitum ferox, it is not inconceivable that proximity to large numbers of flowering plants of the species might cause, not altitude sickness, but illness of some sort.

including A. ferox have, on occasion, been added in small quantities to Himalayan alcoholic drinks - notably the traditional beer known as Chhaang - 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.

Given that Aghori tantrics are charnel ground ascetics who pursue moksha (spiritual liberation) in settings of extreme horror,[16] 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).

[17][18][19] In 2010, the use of A. ferox as a criminal poison 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).