* News * World news * Capital punishment Lethal injection drug production ends in the US

[Evil Eye]

Sole US sodium thiopental manufacturer, Hospira, has ceased manufacturing the drug used in administering death penalties.

US states are facing a new obstacle to enforcing the death penalty after the sole American manufacturer of a drug used in lethal injections announced it was ending production.



Some states have already been forced to seek alternative supplies of sodium thiopental abroad, including illicitly from British companies, in order to carry out executions because of a shortage of the anaesthetic after production was stalled by the lack of a key ingredient.



Now the US manufacturer, Hospira, says that it will stop production entirely after a bid to start making sodium thiopental in Italy stalled when the Rome government said it would only license manufacture if the drug was not used in executions.



Hospira said it intended to manufacture sodium thiopental to serve hospitals but could not prevent the drug from being diverted to departments of corrections for use in capital punishment procedures.



We cannot take the risk that we will be held liable by the Italian authorities if the product is diverted for use in capital punishment, the company said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/23/lethal-injection-sodium-thiopental-hospira



Look at that, a government having to buy an anaesthetic illegally just so they can carry out the death penalty.