Texas Runs Out of Execution Drugs – Considers Other Alternatives

Being the most active and the most committed state to enforce capital punishment in the country, it is no surprise that Texas has run out of execution drugs.

According to AP, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is running out of pentobarbital, its execution drug. The supplies that the state have on hand are said to expire on September and the department has no other alternative drugs sourced out yet.

"We will be unable to use our current supply of pentobarbital after it expires," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said. "We are exploring all options at this time," he added.

Lundbeck, the makers of the execution drug pentobarbital, has restricted the state's purchase of the drug as a means for capital punishment. Lundbeck's stand on the use of their drug for execution was made clear in a statement released by the company last 2011 where they state they are "adamantly opposed" to the distressing misuse of their product in capital punishment.

Before Texas started administering a single dose execution drug, a three-drug execution process was initially adopted. However, it is said that the only maker of the first drug used in the three-step process - the anesthetic sodium thiopental ceased production after its facilities in Italy refused participation in the implementation of capital punishment in the U.S. Various states have then abandoned the three-drug execution process and switched to a single dose execution drug in the form of pentobarbital. Pentobarbital was initially used to euthanize animals.

This year, Texas has already executed 11 death-row inmates with about 7 more scheduled for execution in the coming months. Two death-row inmates are said to be scheduled this September - the month when the execution drug expires. Texas is not the only state on the move in sourcing out execution drugs although they are more pressured especially because they are doing half of the number of executions in the country.