A man who says he manufactures and distributes pharmaceuticals out of an office in the Kolkata satellite town of Salt Lake City, India, has been illegally supplying states like Nebraska with the drugs they need to carry out executions.
BuzzFeed News reporters Chris McDaniel and Tasneem Nashrulla say they've been trying to reach Chris Harris for more than four months, but he refuses to speak with them. When they visited the Salt Lake City office of "Harris Pharma — manufacturer and distribution," they were greeted by an employee who said no drugs are made there; Harris Pharma's other business location is an apartment that Harris hasn't lived in for more than two years. BuzzFeed confirmed that Harris, beginning in 2010, has sold execution drugs illegally to four states, earning tens of thousands of dollars. Since many drugmakers in the U.S. are not selling states the drugs they need to conduct executions, some states are getting desperate and reaching out to foreign suppliers — disregarding federal laws on importing drugs.
Harris has sold at least two states sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that is popular in developing countries but no longer being used in U.S. executions because the only FDA-approved manufacturer stopped making it due to its connection to the death penalty. In May, when Nebraska's state legislature was planning a vote on repealing the death penalty, Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) wanted to show that he could make executions run smoothly in the state, BuzzFeed reports. The state Department of Correctional Services ordered 1,000 vials of sodium thiopental, despite there only being 10 men on death row; it was the "minimum order," Harris said. He earned $54,400, and the state legislature repealed the death penalty anyway. The drugs have yet to arrive in Nebraska, BuzzFeed reports.
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Although Harris has sold vials of sodium thiopental to Nebraska three times and South Dakota, they were never used in an execution. When attorneys for death row inmates in South Dakota found out the drugs were imported, they sued, and the drugs expired before being used. In 2011, the CEO of Swiss manufacturer Naari sent a letter to Nebraska saying the vials the state had received from Harris came from its plant, but "Mr. Harris misappropriated our medicines and diverted them from their intended purpose and use." Naari and inmates on death row sued, and the drugs expired before being used. The FDA said it is investigating Harris, saying that "sodium thiopental is unlawful to import and FDA would refuse its admission into the United States." On Monday, Harris again refused to speak with BuzzFeed, saying: "I think you people don't understand English.... STOP SENDING ME EMAILS." Read the entire fascinating story at BuzzFeed.
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