Oklahoma solves sodium thiopental shortage problem (drug used in lethal injections)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Oklahoma to use animal drugs to execute humans

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, November 14th, 2010 -- 3:07 pm

Oklahoma to use animal drugs to execute humans

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/oklahoma-animal-drugs-execute-humans/

WASHINGTON — Faced with a national shortage of a key drug used for lethal injections, Oklahoma now hopes to turn to an anesthetic used to put down animals and is awaiting a court ruling on the issue.

For months now, several US states have struggled to find supplies of sodium thiopental -- the first and most crucial of three drugs used in lethal injections. The shortage has forced some states to put executions on hold.

"The reason the first drug matters so much is because... if properly administered, it will put the inmate in a state of unconsciousness where he does not feel the second and third drug," University of California, Berkeley professor Elisabeth Semel told AFP.

"If you use a different drug, an unknown drug, then you don't know whether or not it has been mixed differently, whether or not the staff has the expertise to administer it properly."

[XemaSab]

1. .

:golfclap:

[rug]

2. This is Mengele shit.

[Ian David]

3. I really don't care what people in Oklahoma do to each other anymore. n/t

[BlueIris]

7. Oklahomans are still U.S. citizens, you know. And regardless

of your (or anyone's) opinions of their terrible state government, they are still deserving of our compassion and of basic human rights.

[AlabamaLibrul]

4. I am very very very anti death penalty. But describing pentobarbital as an "animal anaestetic" is

misleading at best. It's not used much anymore in humans, due to better developments, but it is legally prescribed from time to time.

It's commonly used in assisted suicide. The coroner's report on Marilyn Monroe indicates she died of an overdose of it. It's related to the sodium thiopental they use now. They're solving the "problem" by using a FDA approved, as much "human" drug as "animal" drug, that is in the same class of drugs as the one in short supply.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Wouldn't that be an improvement then?

Most DPers don't give a shit what is pumped into a human, but nothing is going to be used on animals that is not humane - SPCA will see to that.

[BlueIris]

6. "(I)t will put the inmate in a state of unconsciousness where he does not feel the second...drug"

So, they're justifying it on humanitarian grounds? Gross. And second--how would you know what they feel, asshole?

[HopeHoops]

8. Easy: "All last meals for death row inmates MUST be from McDonald's"

That would take care of it on its own - without the drugs.

[ladjf]

9. End capital punishment. nt