Defense attorneys said the use of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride could cause ‘excruciating suffering’

Utah officials said on Saturday that they are scrapping plans to use an untested lethal drug combination in next month’s planned execution of a man in a 1998 murder case. They will instead seek out a drug that’s been used previously in executions in numerous states.

Defense attorneys for Taberon Dave Honie, 49, had sued in state court to stop the use of the drug combination, saying it could cause the defendant “excruciating suffering”.

The execution scheduled for 8 August would be Utah’s first since the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, by firing squad.

  • @[email protected]
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    65 months ago

    Guillotine. Effective, repeatable, instantaneous.

    But I think it overdose of marijuana should do the trick. Nobody would ever claim that was cruel.

    • holgersson
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      5 months ago

      Overdosing on THC is basically one long panic attack, which occurs waaaaaayyxy before you even come close to dieing. I think, some people might consider this cruel.

      • skulblaka
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        215 months ago

        Pedantic, but:

        The LD50 for THC is so hilariously high that you will physically lose the ability to move your body and consume more THC long, long before you reach a point of potential toxicity. From a technical standpoint there is no recorded event of a THC “overdose” ever occurring, like literally ever in human history, and boy have we been trying over the years. It’s easier to die from drinking too much water than consuming too much THC.

        Now clearly what you’re referring to is just having had too much, “greening out” as the kids say, where you can gain a lot of anxiety and lose a lot of bodily control. And yes, that sucks, a lot. Panic attack city right there. But that’s not an overdose in the proper, dangerous sense of the term.

        I only even bring this up because with cannabis being such a hot button political issue lately and being on the brink of federal legalization, accurate information about it is more important now than ever. And more often than not I usually see comments like this just replied to with “lol u can’t overdose on weed idiot” with no further context and that’s not helpful to anyone.

        You can definitely take too much and have a bad time, but if you manage to find a way to legitimately overdose on THC, Willie Nelson would like to know your location.

        • qprimed
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          75 months ago

          but if you manage to find a way to legitimately overdose on THC, Willie Nelson would like to know your location.

          gather round, everyone! let me introduce you to the winner of today’s internet.

        • @lemonmelon
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          75 months ago

          You can definitely take too much and have a bad time

          You’ve just alluded to a toxic reaction due to overdose. The term overdose does not exclusively refer to the median fatal dose, nor does it hinge on the risk of lethality.

          • skulblaka
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            35 months ago

            Okay, point taken, but - Oxford’s definition of overdose reads “an excessive and dangerous dose of a drug”, emphasis mine, though that may differ from a clinical definition. My point was that it’s basically impossible to consume enough THC to require medical attention about it, even if you’re trying.

            Though I’m realizing now that this conversation is taking place in the context of executing a man with it, so the point may be moot anyway.

          • @Ensign_Crab
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            35 months ago

            This is in the context of execution.

            • @lemonmelon
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              45 months ago

              It’s in the context of someone moving the conversation from “a cannibus overdose is impractical as a means of execution” to “there is no such thing as a cannibus overdose”.

    • Flying Squid
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      45 months ago

      Who gets the fun job of cleaning up all the blood?

      • @[email protected]
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        85 months ago

        An independent contractor who charges $300/h. The actual work is done by a sub-sub-contractor’s minimum wage employee who’s expected to bring their own cleaning supplies.

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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        75 months ago

        The same people who clean flats where someone died alone and was only discovered weeks to months later because of the smell.