HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Thursday that its remaining supply of pentobarbital expires in September, with no alternatives found. It wasn’t immediately clear whether two executions scheduled for next month would be delayed. The state has already executed 11 death-row inmates this year, and at least seven more have execution dates in coming months.
‘‘We will be unable to use our current supply of pentobarbital after it expires,’’ agency spokesman Jason Clark said. ‘‘We are exploring all options .’’
Texas switched to the lethal, single-dose sedative last year after one of the drugs used in its three-drug execution process became difficult to obtain and the state’s supply expired. Other death-penalty states have encountered similar problems after some drug suppliers barred the use of the drugs for executions or have refused, under pressure from death-penalty opponents, to sell or manufacture drugs for use in executions.
No Texas executions were delayed by that shortfall.
‘‘When Texas raises a flag that’s it having a problem, obviously numerically it’s significant around in the country because like they’re doing half the executions in the country right now,’’ Richard Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, an antideath penalty organization, said Thursday.
‘‘The states really scramble to go all over to get drugs,’’ he said. ‘‘But these manufacturers, a number of them are based in Europe, don’t want to participate in our executions.’’
Some death penalty states, have announced they’re turning to compounding pharmacies to make customized drugs not scrutinized by the Federal Drug Administration to obtain a lethal drug for execution use.
Missouri wants to use propofol, the anesthetic blamed for pop star Michael Jackson’s 2009 death — even though the drug has not been used to execute US prisoners.