Ohio to Change Drug Cocktail Used for Executions

Pentobarbitol no longer available as manufacturer will no longer sell for use to put people to death

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on Friday announced it would soon allow a new chemical cocktail to be shot intravenously during lethal injections.

Department rules allow a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone to be injected directly into a condemned inmate's muscles if the DRC's drug of choice, pentobarbital, is unavailable.

But a new policy -- effective Oct. 10 -- will allow midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a morphine derivative, to be injected directly into an inmate's veins instead of his muscles.