A group of US senators has urged the Department of Justice to rescind a Trump-era legal opinion stating that the Food and Drug Administration cannot regulate drugs intended for use in executions, the Huffington Post reports. The lawmakers reportedly describe the opinion as “deeply flawed”, and argue this not only increases the risk of botched executions, but also compromises the supply chain of drugs in the U.S., which puts the broader public in danger.
“The practices we are seeing amount to illicit drug trafficking by state officials, which endanger the patient population by bringing substandard drugs into the system, and risk causing excruciating and prolonged executions”, the joint executive director of Reprieve US, Maya Foa, told Huffington Post.
“Congress is right to raise the alarm ― particularly given the recent history of opioid deaths partly arising from lax enforcement. It is vital that federal drug law is properly enforced in all cases, and we urge the Administration to act on this.”