Faced with a threat of legal action under the Freedom of Information Act, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice revealed that it had recently purchased eight 2.5 gram vials of pentobarbital from The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, a Houston area pharmacy.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Jasper Lovoi, owner of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, has demanded that TDCJ return the pentobarbital his pharmacy sold them because “he was ‘in the middle of a firestorm’ of press inquiries and hateful calls after word of the drug sale slipped out late last week.”
In his letter demanding the return of the execution drug, Lovoi wrote: "It was my belief that this information would be kept on the 'down low' and that it was unlikely that it would be discovered that my pharmacy provided these drugs. I must demand TDCJ immediately return the vials of compounded pentobarbital in exchange for a refund." TDCJ responded that it purchased the drug legally and would not return it.
Other states are experiencing difficulties in obtaining a supply of execution drugs. American drug companies are reluctant to supply lethal drugs under immense pressure from anti-death penalty groups. European drug companies have stopped sending lethal drugs to the U.S. after having been deluged with threats and hate mail for supplying lethal drugs to the States. And the European Union is considering an embargo on drugs that can be used to carry out executions.
Missouri, which uses Propofol (Michael Jackson's drug of choice) in its executions, has probably seen the last of its supply because the European Union is blocking the German pharmaceutical Fresenius Kabi from exporting any more Propofol for execution purposes.
In my opinion, Texas and the other death penalty states ought to file lawsuits against any American pharmaceutical companies and compounding pharmacies that refuse to supply them with execution drugs. The U.S. Supreme Court has declared the death penalty to be constitutional. Accordingly, drug-producing businesses should not have the right to turn down any legal purchase orders from a government agency for the products they manufacture.
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