FDA affirms refusal to release Texas execution drug shipment

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

FDA affirms refusal to release Texas execution drug shipment
Updated 6:01 pm, Thursday, April 20, 2017



GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Federal officials have affirmed their refusal to admit a foreign shipment to Texas prison officials of a drug the state prison system uses in its lethal-injection executions of death row inmates.

In a court document filed Thursday in federal court in Galveston, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has made a final decision to refuse admission of the 1,000-vial shipment of sodium thiopental. That shipment was detained at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport in July 2015.

Federal officials have said the drug has no legal uses in the United States. However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has sued to free the drugs.

In a statement, a state prison system spokesman called the FDA decision "flawed" and that the state is "exploring all options" to free the shipment.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/FDA-affirms-refusal-to-release-Texas-execution-11087920.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[tammywammy]

1. Here's an article tickle from Buzzfeed with more info

After a nearly two-year standoff between death penalty states and the federal government, the Food and Drug Administration formally blocked shipments of thousands of illegal execution drugs on their way to Texas and Arizona. The move sets up a potential legal battle between death penalty states and the Trump administration.

In 2015, Texas, Arizona, and Nebraska each purchased 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic now-banned in the United States. The supplier, a man in India named Chris Harris, claimed to be a manufacturer, but a BuzzFeed News investigation raised questions about his claims.

A facility he lists with the DEA turned out to be a former apartment he left owing rent on. The facility he registered with the FDA is a small office space he rents; a secretary at the building said manufacturing couldn’t be done there.

States, desperate to obtain execution drugs, have turned to Harris a handful of times over the past several years. Each time, Harris convinces the states that the legal problems with the drugs he sells are solved; They’ve never actually been used in executions, but he’s made more than $100,000 from the sales.

-snip-

Much more at link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismcdaniel/trump-administration-blocks-shipment-of-illegal-execution?utm_term=.nqxlZ23P4#.rkdeLxMZw

[Judi Lynn]

2. U.S. regulators block Texas, Arizona over import of execution drug

Thu Apr 20, 2017 | 9:27pm EDT



By Jon Herskovitz and Toni Clarke


A U.S. regulatory agency told Texas and Arizona that more than a thousand vials of drugs they ordered for executions in their states from India in 2015, and seized by U.S. Customs, will not be released to them, an official said on Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration notified the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Arizona Department of Corrections that their confiscated shipments of sodium thiopental have been refused on the basis that the detained drugs appear to be unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs, FDA press officer Lyndsay Meyer said.

. . .

In January, Texas sued for the drug's release, saying in its lawsuit that it was importing the sodium thiopental for legal executions.

"My office will not allow the FDA to sit on its hands and thereby impair Texas’ responsibility to carry out its law enforcement duties," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said at the time.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-execution-drugs-idUSKBN17N04Y?rpc=401&

[ret5hd]

3. No legal uses in the U.S.? Do what they would do to me:

If I had illegal drugs shipped to me and the gov't found out, they would wait for me to pick them up then arrest me...and take the drugs.

So, call Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, tell him he and only he can pick the drugs up, and arrest him when he asks for them.

[truthisfreedom]

4. Are executions a greater deterrent to crime than life in prison?

Probably not. They're certainly more expensive. But Texas will never wise up.

[Kathy M]

5. This article is from a couple years ago .......

"Ohio prison officials have been warned by a federal agency they will break the law if they import a lethal injection drug from overseas. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration official wrote June 26 to Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation Correction, saying the agency learned the state “intends to obtain bulk and finished dosage forms of sodium thiopental. Since sodium thiopental is not available in the United States, we assume the product would be obtained from an overseas source."

"Please note that there is no FDA approved application for sodium thiopental and it is illegal to import an unapproved new drug into the United States.” The FDA sent a similar letter to Nebraska officials in May."

"Sodium thiopental is no longer available for purchase in the U.S. The last domestic manufacturer stopped production in 2011, largely because states were using it for executions."

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/08/19/FDA-letter-ohio-execution-drugs.html

I do not think Texas will free shipment