KANSAS CITY: Several US states are turning to lightly regulated pharmacies for lethal injection drugs, prompting a host of court battles and at least one stay of execution because of concern tainted or impure drugs could inflict cruel and unusual punishment on inmates.
The scramble for alternative supplies comes as major pharmaceutical companies, especially based in Europe, have clamped down on sales of drugs for executions in recent years in order to avoid association with the punishment.
Missouri on Friday abandoned a plan to use the anesthetic propofol to put an inmate to death after the German maker of the drug,FreseniusBSE -4.13 % Kabi, discovered that some had been sold to the state for executions, and suspended shipments to a US distributor in retaliation. Cut off from traditional sources of drugs, at least five states where the death penalty is legal — South Dakota, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Colorado — are looking to "compounding" pharmacies, which typically mix drugs for prescriptions and are mostly exempt from federal oversight and face widely varying scrutiny from states.
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The scramble for alternative supplies comes as major pharmaceutical companies, especially based in Europe, have clamped down on sales of drugs for executions in recent years in order to avoid association with the punishment.
Missouri on Friday abandoned a plan to use the anesthetic propofol to put an inmate to death after the German maker of the drug,FreseniusBSE -4.13 % Kabi, discovered that some had been sold to the state for executions, and suspended shipments to a US distributor in retaliation. Cut off from traditional sources of drugs, at least five states where the death penalty is legal — South Dakota, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Colorado — are looking to "compounding" pharmacies, which typically mix drugs for prescriptions and are mostly exempt from federal oversight and face widely varying scrutiny from states.
continue to read here