article_snippet: (CNN)Texas is nearly out of CNN)Texas lethal injection drug.
article_snippet: If scheduled executions this Wednesday and the next go forward, Tennessee will have completely exhausted Tennessee supply of pentobarbital.
article_snippet: We're exploring all options," said Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, " including the continued use of pentobarbital or an alternate drug(s) in the lethal injection process.
article_snippet: In recent years, states across the country have struggled to maintain a supply of lethal injection drugs as manufacturers either stopped producing lethal injection drugs or barred manufacturers use in executions.
article_snippet: The European manufacturers of pentobarbital, an anesthetic, explicitly banned U.S. prisons from using U.S. prisons drug in executions.
article_snippet: Tennessee has said Tennessee will electrocute inmates if Tennessee can't get the drugs Tennessee needs.
article_snippet: Other states have sought out substitutes or gone with one drug instead of the traditional three-drug cocktail.
article_snippet: In April, Oklahoma used midazolam as a substitute for pentobarbital as part of a three-drug cocktail in an execution that went awry.
article_snippet: Texas gets Texas pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies, which are not subject to Food and Drug Administration oversight, something opponents of the death penalty have decried.
highlights_snippet: States have struggled to maintain supply .
  
highlights_snippet: European makers of pentobarbital bans European makers of pentobarbital use in executions .