“We oppose the death penalty in all cases and are clear that British drugs should not be used to carry out lethal injections.”-Vince Cable, British Business Secretary

Mississippi has joined the growing list of U.S. states forced to use drugs used to put down animals, to execute prisoners.  Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina have also begun using pentobarbitol.

The United Kingdom has already banned drugs sent to the U.S. for lethal injections.  Germany is pushing the European Union to do the same: “We have to make sure that no drugs from Germany or the EU will be used to carry out executions.”-Markus Loening, German Human Rights Commissioner

U.S. prisons can’t get their usual death drug, thiopentol sodium, because the only U.S. maker of the drug stopped making it in January.

Amnesty International says the only countries using lethal injections are China and the United States.

But prisons could also see a shortage of pentobarbitol, because the only FDA approved maker of it, Lundbeck, has publicly denounced its use for lethal injection in humans: “Lundbeck does not condone the use of [pentobarbitol] or any other product for capital punishment.”

Lundbeck officials say they have already sent letters of complaint to the states that are now using their drug to kill prisoners.  Lundbeck will now look at ways to blockade access to their drug by prisons.