Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Originally Posted: March 31, 2015
AUSTIN — Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the state of Texas has executed more than a third of all inmates in the nation.
But Texas and seven others that use pentobarbital — a sedative and sleep-inducing drug — to execute inmates find themselves with a short supply of the barbiturate.
To complicate matters, at their annual meeting in San Diego, the American Pharmacists Association delegates on Monday adopted a policy that makes an ethical stand against supplying such drugs to those states on grounds that the drugs they sell are for helping people, not for killing them.
“Pharmacists are health care providers and pharmacist participation in executions conflicts with the profession’s role on the patient health care team,” the association’s CEO Thomas Menighan said in a statement posted on the organization’s website. READ MORE