Arkansas, one of the more backward of US. states by many measures such as education and economy is rushing to kill off death row inmates in an unprecedented rush to Execution just to meet a May first deadline.

Why Arkansas? Why rushed executions?

But the most concerning aspect, that is for those other than the condemned men, is just why there is such a rush to execute these men and it all boils down to the FDA. That's right, the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency charged with keeping drugs safe. You see, most other countries are less than enthusiastic when it comes to supporting the barbaric act of killing people instead of keeping them in prison and are refusing to send the chemicals necessary for execution by lethal injection.

US drug companies likewise won't supply the drugs.

The result of that unwillingness by drug companies is that the last stockpile of lethal drugs in Arkansas is nearing its expiration date. In fact, the most critical drug expires in just a few days which is why the rush to execute these men in the final week.

Think about it for a second. To add to the absurdity of actually having the state killing people we have the ridiculous notion that a drug being used to kill someone in a lethal injection won’t be safe to use if it is one day past its expiration date.

Perhaps the state of Arkansas is concerned that the expired drugs will make the person ill, perhaps give them an upset stomach before killing them?

But that's the law.

Because of FDA rules and state laws Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has demanded that the state carry out eight executions in the final eleven days before the drugs expire.

Execution by poison.

While people in various parts of the country are dying in record numbers of drug overdoses from illegal or even legal opioids (narcotics), the state of Arkansas can’t legally execute (kill) any prisoner by simply giving them an overdose of heroin which would knock them out almost instantly and end their lives painlessly in a matter of seconds.

Instead a series of poisons must be administered in a specific sequence to finish the execution and those drugs must be legal, not expired, and can only be administered by a doctor or under a doctor's orders which, of course violates the basic oath of a doctor to "first, do no harm.".

Any drug pusher in the country could execute these men painlessly using just what they carry in their pocket inventory, but the government rules don't permit that, although they do permit, nay, encourage killing citizens, something only a few countries still do.

In 2015 Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo, and Suriname all banned executions, leaving the top five countries that still execute people: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United States of America.

What drugs exactly?

The execution drug which is about to expire at the end of the month is midazolam which in small doses, one one-hundredth that given to inmates, causes amnesia and acts as a tranquillizer and is used in surgery. In massive doses, it is thought by some medical experts to sometimes enhance pain.

Vecuronium bromide is the second drug. It is used in surgery to prevent the patient from moving - in other words, it paralyses the patient. If the person were awake and not on a mechanical ventilator (the situation during an execution) this has been compared to drowning because it also prevents breathing.

The final drug is potassium which stops the heart from beating.

Some victims of this execution protocol have been seen to go into convulsions when one or more of the drugs didn’t act as expected.

Consider how much easier it would be to just give a fatal dose of heroin, but that would be against the rules.

Drug companies do not advertise their involvement in executions.