Why don’t they give these animals a hot shot of Heroin?
we have all heard stories of Junkies dying with the needle still in their arm.
Probably two reasons: one, it involves “illegal” drugs, which the gov cannot be seen to condone at any cost (note sarcasm), and two, it is too pleasant (based on testimony I’ve read from people who nearly went all the way); it is by definition painless, of course, but I think it also would take too long. Even a big OD would still probably take more than an hour to shut someone down all the way.
The therapeutic index of heroin is rather high (it takes a lot to kill you), and where would you get it? The same suppliers who refuse to sell pentobarbitol would refuse to produce heroin to be used as a killing agent. Pentobarbitol is not used in lethal doses in death penalty cases, btw. It is used to “safely” put the convict to sleep prior to the administration of lethal drugs. The effects of the lethal drugs may be painful (for a while), but the convict is too sedated to exhibit pain.
Personally, I would prefer to execute prisoners by nitrogen asphyxiation, which is how many pounds kill unwanted stray animals.
Plenty of drugs available.
propofol + Potassium Chloride, chased with Norcuronium and it’s mission accomplished.