AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Texas will not share a lethal injection drug with other states that have run out of it, a state spokeswoman said.
Sodium thiopental knocks out the condemned inmate so he will not feel pain from the drugs that kill him. Its only approved manufacturer says new supplies will not be available until next year.
Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, would not specify which states had asked for help, USA Today reported.
Texas is not willing to share the drug even though all 39 of its available doses are expiring in March and it has scheduled only three executions before then, she said.
"We have a responsibility to ensure we have an adequate supply of the drug," Lyons said.
Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky are among the states scrambling to get the drug.
Last week, a federal judge let Oklahoma use pentobarbital, a drug used in euthanizing animals, in place of sodium thiopental in lethal injections. An assistant attorney general said the state was forced to find the alternative.
