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AP Enterprise: FDA helps states get execution drug (AZ, CA)
AP ^ | 1/11/11 | ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

Posted on 01/12/2011 3:09:52 AM PST by markomalley

The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death.

The shortage of sodium thiopental has disrupted executions around the country. But newly released documents show the FDA helped import it from Britain.

Most state prison systems use sodium thiopental to put inmates to sleep before administering pancuronium bromide, a paralyzing agent, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

But the drug has been in short supply since last spring, when Ohio nearly had to postpone an execution because it did not have enough.

The sole American manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., in suburban Chicago, has blamed supplier issues for its inability to make the drug, which is marketed to render patients unconscious, not for lethal injections. Any remaining batches expire this year.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: California
KEYWORDS: deathpenalty; fda; hospira; lethalinjection; sodiumthiopental

1 posted on 01/12/2011 3:09:55 AM PST by markomalley
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To: markomalley
heroin works just as well.

no complaints from overdosers so far.
2 posted on 01/12/2011 3:49:23 AM PST by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus - Domari Nolo)
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To: markomalley
I don't get it. Why is this all so bloody complicated in our squeamish, modern society?

When I had my surgery, I was told to count to "10" and only got to "3" after the anesthetic injection. Let's face it, when the subject is out like a light, you can do anything to them.....the cheapest being a pillow.

3 posted on 01/12/2011 4:03:07 AM PST by CanaGuy (Go Harper! We still love you!)
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To: Tainan

We put people under deep sleep for surgeries and dental work every single day in the thousands. So those drugs won’t work? BS! This is the lamest excuse for a system that just doesn’t want to do the job. That’s why people sit in death row for 30+ years.

They don’t want to do the job so what’s going to be the next excuse?


4 posted on 01/12/2011 4:11:53 AM PST by Bullish
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To: Bullish
We put people under deep sleep for surgeries and dental work every single day in the thousands. So those drugs won’t work?

It makes you wonder why they're so hung up on using sodium thiopental which is in such limited supply. One domestic source? In Chicago of all places?

5 posted on 01/12/2011 4:15:49 AM PST by newzjunkey
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To: newzjunkey
It makes you wonder why they're so hung up on using sodium thiopental which is in such limited supply. One domestic source? In Chicago of all places?

It's really a crock of chit cooked up by a bunch anti-punishment liberal doctors and judges. The AMA decided on that drug knowing it is hard to obtain. Knowing it would cause a shortage and the liberal judges gladly went along and ruled that it MUST be the only one they can use.

What a load of crap! Bring back the rope in all 50 states! Problem solved.

6 posted on 01/12/2011 4:31:21 AM PST by Bullish
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To: Tainan

That’s exactly what I have been saying for years. Execute them with heroin.

I can’t tell how many times I went to heroin overdoses and spotted some of them with the needle still in their arms. Wake them with Narcan and the first thing the do is get mad because you ruined their high.

With heroin just leave it in their cell and half of them would over dose and execute themselves.


7 posted on 01/12/2011 6:18:40 AM PST by Venturer
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