Texas Partnered With Problematic Pharmacy For Its Execution Drug
On Tuesday, Texas is set to execute Joseph Garcia. He’s scheduled to be the 12th person to be put to death in 2018. The state has had an ongoing problem maintaining its supply of pentobarbital, the sedative it uses for lethal injections. Since the manufacturer won’t let it be used for executions, the state has to get it from compounding pharmacies. While Texas has tried to keep those pharmacies a secret, an investigation from BuzzFeed News has identified one of those pharmacies, which has a spotty safety record.
“This is a pharmacy called Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy, out of Houston,” says Chris McDaniel, investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News. “For the past few years it’s been helping the state of Texas make at least some of its execution drugs. This is also a pharmacy whose license has been on probation for the past couple years … because it got caught by state regulators giving the wrong drug to three children accidentally, sending one to the hospital.”
McDaniel says that wasn’t the only time Greenpark got into trouble with regulators.
“Over the past eight years … they’ve been cited 48 times by state regulators. They’ve also been inspected by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has cited them for a few things, warning them that their practices were putting patients at risk,” McDaniel says.
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-partnered-with-problematic-pharmacy-for-its-death-penalty-drug/