According to the Department of Justice, the FDA does not have jurisdiction to regulate drugs during executions

The Department of Justice said Tuesday in a legal opinion that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not have jurisdiction over drugs used in lethal injections.

The Office of the Legal Counsel of the Ministry of Justice stated that "articles intended to be used as capital punishment by a state or the federal government can not be regulated as" drugs "or" devices ". stated that the FDA "did not have jurisdiction".

The opinion was signed by Deputy Attorney General Steve Engel, appointed by the President TrumpDonald John TrumpPelosi will meet Lighthizer in the midst of trade tensions GOP lawmaker criticizes Pelosi for his response to Tlaib controversy The Alabama Senate has decided to ban almost all abortions, sending a measure to the office of the Governor PLUS.

The notice is the result of a dispute that has lasted for years between Texas and the FDA and that began in 2015 when the agency prevented the Lone Star State from importing cargoes of an anesthetic coming from a foreign distributor. The FDA said that the import was illegal because the drug had not been approved in the United States and had been mislabelled.

Texas formally filed suit in 2017, shortly before Trump took office, claiming that the FDA was mingling with its law enforcement obligations.

The legal opinion of the Department of Justice stands alongside Texas in the lawsuit, although it is not certain that it will have an immediate impact. The FDA was operating under a 2012 court injunction prohibiting the importation of the drug, sodium thiopental.

The Justice Department has not indicated it will fight for the injunction to be removed, which could result in a lengthy court battle.

President Trump and his two Attorneys General confirmed by the Senate, Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard The Justice Department of Sessions says the FDA does not have jurisdiction to regulate drugs during executions and William BarrWilliam Pelham, Barr's Department of Judicial Justice, states that the FDA does not have jurisdiction to regulate drugs during executions. The attorney appointed by Barr is about to enter the Washington storm. The Hill & # 39; s 12:30 Report: Trump Minimizes Fallout from the Trade War MORE, expressed their support for the death penalty.

States have had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs in recent years after pharmaceutical companies objected to their products being used during executions, resulting in a shortage of available equipment, according to the report. the Washington Post. Some pharmaceutical companies have resorted to courts to prevent the use of their products in fatal objections.