Editing Lethal injection (section)

====Sodium thiopental====
{{Main|Sodium thiopental}}
*Lethal injection dosage: 2–5&nbsp;grams

Sodium thiopental (US trade name: Sodium Pentothal) is an ultra-short acting barbiturate, often used for anesthesia induction and for medically induced coma. The typical anesthesia induction dose is 0.35 grams. Loss of consciousness is induced within 30–45 seconds at the typical dose, while a 5&nbsp;gram dose (14 times the normal dose) is likely to induce unconsciousness in 10 seconds.

A full medical dose of thiopental reaches the brain in about 30 seconds. This induces an unconscious state. Five to twenty minutes after injection, approximately 15% of the drug is in the brain, with the rest in other parts of the body.

The [[half-life]] of this drug is about 11.5 hours,<ref>{{cite journal |pmid=7235274 |title=Pharmacokinetics and plasma binding of thiopental. I: Studies in surgical patients |year=1981 |last1=Morgan |first1=DJ |last2=Blackman |first2=GL |last3=Paull |first3=JD |last4=Wolf |first4=LJ |volume=54 |issue=6 |pages=468–73 |journal=Anesthesiology |doi=10.1097/00000542-198106000-00005|doi-access=free }}</ref> and the concentration in the brain remains at around 5–10% of the total dose during that time. When a 'mega-dose' is administered, as in state-sanctioned lethal injection, the concentration in the brain during the tail phase of the distribution remains higher than the peak concentration found in the induction dose for anesthesia, because repeated doses—or a single very high dose as in lethal injection—accumulate in high concentrations in body fat, from which the thiopental is gradually released.<ref name="THIOPENTAL SODIUM"/> This is the reason why an ultra-short acting barbiturate, such as thiopental, can be used for long-term induction of medical [[coma]].

Historically, thiopental has been one of the most commonly used and studied [[drugs]] for the induction of coma. Protocols vary for how it is given, but the typical doses are anywhere from 500&nbsp;mg up to 1.5&nbsp;grams. It is likely that this data was used to develop the initial protocols for state-sanctioned lethal injection, according to which one gram of thiopental was used to induce the coma. Most states use 5&nbsp;grams to be absolutely certain the dosage is effective.

[[Pentobarbital]] was introduced at the end of 2010 due to a shortage of sodium thiopental,<ref name="cnn20101216" /> and has since become the primary sedative in lethal injections in the United States.<ref name="state-lethal-injection" />

Barbiturates are the same class of drug used in medically assisted suicide. In euthanasia protocols, the typical dose of thiopental is 1.5&nbsp;grams; the Dutch Euthanasia protocol indicates 1-1.5 grams or 2 grams in case of high barbiturate tolerance.<ref name=euthanasics/> The dose used for capital punishment is therefore about 3 times more than the dose used in euthanasia.