Because Pete Mitchell (Maverick) was so depressed over the death of Goose, Charlie mentions Hemlock at the airport bar as a analogy to the death of Socrates who drank hemlock to commit suicide.
Hemlock
He was forced to drink hemlock.
It is a poisonous drink. Socrates was forced to kill him self by drinking it.
Socrates drank hemlock, a highly poisonous plant that caused respiratory failure and ultimately led to his death.
In most scenes he is drinking beer. However, in a scene after Goose is killed he is approached by Charlie and, when a waitress asks him what she will have, Charlie tells her she'll have what he is having. Charlie asks him if it is hemlock, and he tells the waitress it is ice water.
Socrates was given hemlock to drink.
He was found guilty by a jury of corrupting the youth of Athens and of impiety and sentenced to death. He was not forced to drink hemlock, he chose to as an alternative to having his throat cut by the public executioner and thrown into a garbage pit.
Traditionally Aristotle died in "of a disease of the digestive organs". That could very well mean he was poisoned and Alexander is rumored to have arranged for his death prior to his own death, but nothing is certain. He did not knowingly or willingly drink hemlock. Another famous philosopher, Socrates, was sentence to death by drinking hemlock. Aristotle had accused the Greeks of sinning against Philosophy by executing Socrates.
He is drinking beer in most scenes. In one scene, Charlie tells a waitress she will have what he is drinking and asks Maverick if it is hemlock. He tells the waitress it is 'ice water.'
Socrates was sentenced to drink hemlock by an Athenian jury for impiety and corrupting the youth. His method of questioning authority and encouraging critical thinking was seen as a threat to the stability of the city-state.
From hemlock yes but not an overdose it was his death penalty