New execution drug draws opposition

[Jazzy]

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The maker of a drug Indiana wants to use for its first execution since 2009 says the anesthetic, which has never been used in lethal injections, isn't approved for that purpose and that it only recently learned of the state's intentions.

Stephen Mock, spokesman for Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based Par Pharmaceutical, said Friday the company didn't know Indiana had purchased Brevital for use in an execution until seeing news reports about it. He said the company is amending its distribution agreements to state that the product should not be sold to departments of correction but won't try to stop Indiana from using the Brevital it already has.

Indiana officials are standing by their decision to switch to Brevital because of a shortage of sodium thiopental. They say the drug, a powerful anesthetic used in hospitals for decades, is appropriate for an execution.

"Brevital, the way we intend to use it, will do exactly what it's intended purpose is, which is to induce a deep, painless, unconsciousness," Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said Friday.

The use of Brevital was successfully challenged in Oklahoma in 2010 by a lawyer who contended it was experimental and might lead to a "torturous" death. Par Pharmaceutical issued a statement this week saying Brevital is "intended to be used as an anesthetic in life-sustaining procedures" and that Indiana's planned use of it in an execution "is inconsistent with its medical indications as outlined in its U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviewed and approved product labeling."

Garrison said the state is confident that its drug protocol will work. He said Indiana State Prison Superintendent Bill Wilson selected Brevital as a replacement for sodium thiopental after consulting with "with pharmacists, other states and other experts."

State law doesn't specify what drugs are to be used for executions, saying only that the drugs must be injected intravenously in a quantity and for an amount of time sufficient to kill the inmate.

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Your thoughts on the use of Brevital as an execution drug?

 

[DrLeftover]

I think the idea of Sudden Onset Acute Lead Poisoning is looking more attractive all the time.