If governments are always looking for more humane methods of execution, why are heroin and other opiates never used, since they are supposedly the most blissful way to pass?

Question

If governments are always looking for more humane methods of execution, why are heroin and other opiates never used, since they are supposedly the most blissful way to pass?

In: 306

Answer 1

The optics of an execution have always been very important. It would be bad politically to have a serial killer die blissed out on black tar heroin. We no longer want gruesome executions but we don’t want an execution to seem like a reward. Also it’s very hard to get pharmaceutical companies to provide drugs for executions. That’s one of the reasons they use the cocktail they do, its about the only thing they can get their hands on.