( CNN ) Texas is nearly out of its lethal injection drug . If scheduled executions this Wednesday and the next go forward , the state will have completely exhausted its supply of pentobarbital . `` 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 . '' In recent years , states across the country have struggled to maintain a supply of lethal injection drugs as manufacturers either stopped producing the drugs or barred their use in executions . The European manufacturers of pentobarbital , an anesthetic , explicitly banned U.S. prisons from using its drug in executions . Tennessee has said it will electrocute inmates if it ca n't get the drugs it needs . Other states have sought out substitutes or gone with one drug instead of the traditional three-drug cocktail . In April , Oklahoma used midazolam as a substitute for pentobarbital as part of a three-drug cocktail in an execution that went awry . Clayton Lockett , a convicted rapist and murderer , writhed and convulsed after the drugs were administered . It took 43 minutes for him to die . Texas gets its pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies , which are not subject to Food and Drug Administration oversight , something opponents of the death penalty have decried . The state leads the nation in the numbers of executions . Last year , it put to death 10 people . This year , it has executed three so far .
States have struggled to maintain supply . European makers of pentobarbital bans its use in executions .