User blog comment:TVthePunisher/Weekly Dexter Blogs: Dexter News! Volume 1/@comment-67.71.237.250-20110112003725/@comment-1405841-20110112032227

Strangely enough, many of the "facts" claimed within the series are unfortunately a bit mistaken. For example, Dexter by now would have been caught if he did all the things he's currently doing in real life...because he has left PLENTY of slip-ups that would have tipped off an actual forensics team (mainly his use of electronics such as phones at the kill rooms). So the Etorphine that Dexter uses is probably a slip through the plotholes, while you're probably correct...it should kill the victim.

UNLESS their explaination is that he uses a degraded dose, that would reduce the potency yet keep the victim alive and unconscious for a period of usually three hours. Hell, he has been known to use multiple doses on victims...I believe three on one particular victim at one point (he had to use two doses mind you on Little Chino, who is clearly not the size of an elephant despite being a tall, muscular male), yet they lived until he killed them.

Though with Little Chino, he simply could have degraded one dose slightly instead of requiring two needles...technically four by the time he finally killed him. I think you found a good point, thanks for pointing it out =D sadly yes DEXTER as a show is fantasy and thus many of the realistic details are removed to move the story along.