State leaders react to pharmacists association's new policy against selling execution drugs

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.

"This new policy aligns APhA with the execution policies of other major health care associations including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, and the American Board of Anesthesiology." Menighan said.

The website also recognized "the move could make executions harder for states that have been ordering their drugs from compounding pharmacies."

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the agency in charge of executions in the state, said his office had no comment on the association's new policy.

As for the short supply of the lethal drugs, "the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has obtained a new supply of pentobarbital, which will allow the agency to carry out executions that are scheduled for the month of April," Clark said in an email.

"The drugs were purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound," Clark said. "We continue to explore all options, including the continued used of pentobarbital or alternate drugs to use in the lethal injection process."

Rick Halperin, a death penalty opponent who praised the association's move, said Texas and the other states that execute inmates with lethal injections are going to have to rely on drugs from compounding pharmacies and those narcotics are difficult to get.

Compounding pharmacies combine, mix or alter drugs to meet specific needs of buyers and patients.

Regular pharmacies "are going to be reluctant," to sell the lethal drugs those states want, said Halperin, director of the Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"I think one or two things are going to be in the bigger picture: in the short term, Halperin said. "I think states like Utah, Wyoming and Oklahoma that are determined to kill inmates at any cost will have discussions about other methods like firing squads, nitrogen (gas) and the electric chair.

"So, I think we are going to re-visit the discussion of those terrible methods that were stopped years ago," he predicted. "Lethal injection was first used in the United States, in Texas, in December of 1982, so it's been about 33 years that Texas has used the needle."

However, the shortage of lethal drugs is not likely to be addressed in the current session of the Texas Legislature, unless Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Joe Straus or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick - the presiding officer of the Senate - issue special authorization.

The green light would be necessary because the bill-filing deadline for this session was March 13.

On the flip side of the issue, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, and Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, filed bills aimed at abolishing the death penalty in Texas.

Although Dutton said at a recent press conference that the state government shouldn't be in the death business, his and Lucio's proposals are not expected to pass in the Republican-dominated Legislature.

A recent poll conducted by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune showed three of every four Texans support the death penalty for violent crimes.

In addition, Abbott - who was the state attorney general for 12 years before being elected to his current post - is a staunch supporter of the death penalty.

Last summer, Abbott even accused his Democratic opponent, former state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, of flip flopping on the issue.

enrique.rangel@morris.com

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