Dem Senators Urge Califf to Reclaim Regulation of Lethal Injection Drugs

The FDA needs to regain the authority to regulate drugs used in executions, according to nine Democratic senators who Tuesday wrote separate letters to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram.

Citing state departments of corrections turning to “increasingly questionable suppliers willing to sell concoctions designed to kill,” the legislators – led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) – want to put an end to states executing people “using drugs of unknown origin and dubious quality…misbranded or unlabeled, shipped in unmarked jars and boxes.”

The senators specifically want a reversal of a 2019 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that was ordered by then-Attorney General William Barr suggesting the FDA lacked jurisdiction over lethal injection drugs, and “ensure that the FDA and DEA fulfill their public health responsibilities.”

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