A nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal, a key drug used in exe­cu­tions around the coun­try, has forced states to con­sid­er alter­na­tive drugs for their lethal injec­tions. Tennessee, where 86 inmates are fac­ing exe­cu­tion and sodi­um thiopen­tal is in short sup­ply, is con­sid­er­ing using pen­to­bar­bi­tal instead. Oklahoma has already exe­cut­ed three inmates using the new drug as part of a 3‑drug pro­to­col. The use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, how­ev­er, has drawn con­cerns from some anes­the­si­ol­o­gists who said the drug has not been used to put patients to sleep and has not been test­ed for exe­cu­tions. Dr. David Varlotta, who is on the board of direc­tors of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, not­ed that there are sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences between the two drugs, and said pen­to­bar­bi­tal ​“is not used in a clin­i­cal set­ting for clin­i­cal anes­the­sia.” Dr. David Waisel, an anes­the­si­ol­o­gist and Harvard Medical School pro­fes­sor, said, ​“Sodium thiopen­tal has been used mil­lions of times, for 90% of oper­a­tions, for 30 years. Pentobarbital has almost nev­er been used for induc­tion of anes­the­sia. If you look at the lit­er­a­ture, there’s one report from the ​’40s, maybe 2. We’re exper­i­ment­ing, and we’re tak­ing a huge risk here just for the big desire to make sure we’re killing people.”

(B. Haas, ​“Tennessee has few options for exe­cu­tion drugs,” The Tennessean, February 6, 2011). See DPIC’s Lethal Injection page.

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