Texas’ lethal drug seized
FDA intercepts delivery from India; state cites clearance by the DEA.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration intercepted an international shipment of an unapproved lethal injection drug called sodium thiopental that was ordered by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a federal official said Friday.
The shipment originated in India in July, according to the online news site Buzzfeed, which first reported the seized shipment.
“FDA has detained and is holding shipments of sodium thiopental that the state correctional facilities in Arizona and Texas attempted to import into the United States,” FDA spokesman Jeff Ventura said. “Courts have concluded that sodium thiopental for the injection in humans is an unapproved drug and may not be imported into the country for this purpose.”
But Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said that state officials had received federal clearance to import the drug.
“The Texas Department of Criminal Justice obtained an import license from the Drug Enforcement Administration prior to the importation,” Clark said. “In accordance with federal law and prior to shipment of the drug, TDCJ filed notice with the DEA of the anticipated shipment.”
Clark said the state acquired the license on Jan. 21 and noti-
fied the DEA “more than two weeks prior to its arrival.” He wouldn’t say how much the state paid for the shipment or where it came from, citing a new state law that keeps the source of execution drugs secret.
Sodium thiopental is an anesthetic that had been used in conjunction with two other drugs to perform lethal injections in Texas. Death penalty states have struggled to find new suppliers of execution drugs amid a nationwide shortage. Texas stopped using sodium thiopental in 2011 because it couldn’t identify a supplier, and switched to pentobarbital and other drugs. The state has been using pentobarbital alone since 2012.
Clark wouldn’t say whether Texas was considering using a different execution drug but said there was enough pentobarbital to execute all 253 inmates on death row.
In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that the FDA could no longer allow the importation of sodium thiopental because the drug lacks FDA approval.
The seized shipment highlights a regulatory overlap between the FDA and DEA. The FDA regulates prescription and nonprescription drugs — including sodium thiopental. But the drug is also a Schedule III controlled substance, which falls under DEA jurisdiction.
DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said it is possible that Texas could have obtained a permit to import the drug despite the FDA prohibiting the drug.
The news of the shipment has worried death penalty opponents, who cite concerns about the secrecy surrounding the state’s lethal injection program. “It shouts for the need for transparency,” said Maurie Levin, one of the lawyers representing complainants in a federal lethal injection case in Houston. “Nobody knew that Texas was attempting to obtain sodium thiopental.”
A new law that went into effect in September allows state prison officials to keep confidential the names of pharmacies or companies that sell execution drugs to Texas.
The Texas House sponsor of the bill, Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said secrecy was needed to protect pharmacies from retaliation, but Democrats argued that the protection is unnecessary because there have been no proven cases of such threats.
Condemned inmates and defense lawyers can still learn when the drug was purchased, when it expires and results of lab tests on the drug’s potency and purity.
News of the shipment has worried death penalty opponents.