It takes a few minutes, actually....doesn't chloroform cause you to lose consciousness immediately?
Not without major medical training. And even then not very safely. That's why chloroform is no longer used as a medical anaesthetic: it is more dangerous than any other alternative that we currently have.also, is there such a thing as using chloroform in a safe, controlled environment?
Chloroform causes liver damage and severe headaches. But the main problem is that it has what pharmacologists call a low therapeutic index: the difference between the dose needed to produce unconsciousness and a fatal overdose is very narrow. In medical practice it was administered a drop at a time, through a mask, until the patient was unconscious. And even at that patients still died.
The only reason chloroform was ever used was the fact that it was at least safer than performing surgery without anaesthesia.