What drug is used for lethal injection?

Lethal injection is a method of injecting drugs to make the criminal lose consciousness and stop breathing and heartbeat. my country is the second country to officially adopt lethal injection, and Yunnan Province is the province that most actually implements lethal injection. What drug can be used to kill the criminal by injection? Usually, three drugs, sodium thiopental, panthiopental, and potassium chloride, are used for lethal injection. All three drugs can cause death quickly.

1. Lethal injection , or lethal injection, is the process of killing the person instantly by injecting a lethal dose of drugs (usually barbiturates, muscle relaxants and potassium chloride solution). It is mainly used in executions, but may also be used in euthanasia and suicide. It usually causes the person to lose consciousness first, then stop their breathing and heartbeat.

As of 2015, 55 countries in the world have implemented the death penalty, and the main forms of execution include shooting, hanging, beheading, electric shock, poison gas, stoning, and injection. China is the second country in the world to officially adopt the death penalty by injection after the United States. Kunming, Yunnan was the first city to implement lethal injection, becoming the first province to bid farewell to "execution by firing squad."

2. Use of drugs

Generally speaking, three drugs are used for lethal injection: sodium thiopental causes loss of consciousness, pancreatic sedation causes muscle paralysis and respiratory failure, and potassium chloride stimulates the myocardium to make the heart beat faster, allowing the other drugs to quickly spread throughout the body and play an auxiliary accelerating role.

1. Thiopental Sodium

Main article: Sodium thiopental

Lethal injection dose: 2-5 grams

Sodium thiopental is a very fast-acting barbiturate that is often used for anesthesia. The general anesthetic dosage is 3-5 mg/kg body weight. A normal dose can cause loss of consciousness within 35-40 seconds, but 5 grams (14 times the normal dose) is likely to cause loss of consciousness within ten seconds.

Thiopental reaches the brain within seconds, and the full dose takes about 30 seconds. By this standard, the prisoner is already unconscious when the medication is administered. Within 5-20 minutes, the drug dose in the brain will drop to 15% of the total dose as the drug diffuses throughout the body.

The drug has a half-life of 11.5 hours, by which time the drug dose in the brain remains at 5%-10% of the total dose. When a "mega-dose" of the drug is given, as in state-sanctioned lethal injections, the concentration in the brain remains higher after the drug has spread throughout the body than it would be under normal anesthesia. This is why an extremely fast-acting barbiturate, such as sodium thiopental, may be used to induce a prolonged medical coma.

Historically, sodium thiopental has been one of the most commonly used anesthetics. The dosage varies at different times, but the normal dose is between 500 mg and 1.5 grams. Such data have been used to develop national guidelines for lethal injection. Most countries use 5 grams to ensure effectiveness.

Barbiturates are also used in euthanasia, but only one agent is used in euthanasia, rather than the three used in executions. In euthanasia, the usual dose is 1.5 grams.

2. Bafron

Main article: Bafron

Lethal injection dose: 100 mg

Pavlon is a nondepolarizing muscle relaxant that blocks the transmission of acetylcholine at the junction of the neuromuscular terminals, which causes the contraction of the muscle fibers; nondepolarizing drugs prevent this.

The dose of panfuron in a lethal injection is usually 0.2 mg/kg body weight, and the duration of muscle relaxation is about 4-8 hours. Paralysis of the respiratory muscles will lead to death in a much shorter time than this.

Other drugs in use include tubocurarine and succinylcholine chloride.

3. Potassium chloride

Main article: Potassium chloride

Lethal injection dose: 100 mEq (thousand-fold equivalent)

Potassium is an electrolyte. 98% of the human body is present inside cells, and the 2% outside cells can lead to the activity of cell potential. It can be taken orally, which is the safest way; it can also be injected into the human body intravenously, but this method has strict regulations and hospitals also limit its dosage.

The usual intravenous dose is 10-20 mEq per hour, and the infusion is very slow because it takes time for the electrolyte concentration inside and outside the cells to balance. When used in state-approved lethal injections, large doses of potassium affect the electrical conduction of the heart muscle. Excess potassium in the blood causes the electrical potential of heart muscle cells to be lower than normal (positively charged). Without the negative potential, the heart cells cannot be stimulated to contract.

Depolarizing a muscle cell inhibits its ability to move by reducing available sodium channels. ECG changes include more rapid repolarization (peaked T wave), prolonged PR interval, widening of the QRS rhythm, which may develop into a sine wave, and eventually asystole. Cases of patients dying from hyperkalemia (second only to kidney failure) are well known in the medical community. In such cases, the patient usually dies quickly, even though he or she may have appeared fine the moment before.

Potassium chloride is also used to induce abortion in certain circumstances.

4. New Ohio Standards

The Ohio standard, developed after the unfinished execution of Romell Bron, ensures rapid and painless anesthesia (using only sodium thiopental) and excludes the use of second and third doses of curare and potassium. It also provides alternate measurements.

The preferred option is sodium thiopental, 5 g, intravenously. Alternatives: midazolam, 10 mg, IM; hydromorphone, 40 mg, IM.