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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Fri Oct 23, 2015, 06:17 PM Oct 2015

Feds Seize Lethal-Injection Drugs Imported by Texas, Arizona

Source: Associated Press

Feds Seize Lethal-Injection Drugs Imported by Texas, Arizona

By ASTRID GALVAN AND JUSTIN PRITCHARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS TUCSON, Ariz. — Oct 23, 2015, 5:58 PM ET

Compounding the nation's severe shortage of execution drugs, federal authorities have confiscated shipments of a lethal-injection chemical that Arizona and Texas tried to bring in from abroad, saying such imports are illegal.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it impounded orders of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that has been used in past executions in combination with drugs that paralyze the muscles and stop the heart. It currently has no legal uses in the U.S.

"Courts have concluded that sodium thiopental for the injection in humans is an unapproved drug and may not be imported into the country," FDA spokesman Jeff Ventura said in a statement.

Arizona paid nearly $27,000 for the sodium thiopental, but federal agents intercepted it when it arrived via British Airways at the Phoenix airport in July, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Texas and FDA authorities gave fewer details about the seizure there. Texas is the nation's busiest death penalty state, with about 250 death row inmates and 530 executions carried out over the past four decades. But it has not been using sodium thiopental in recent years.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/documents-arizona-illegally-import-execution-drug-34671763
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