Editing Lethal injection (section)

====Dilution effect====
Death-penalty supporters state that the claim that pancuronium dilutes the sodium thiopental dose is erroneous. Supporters argue that pancuronium and thiopental are commonly used together in everyday surgery and that if there were a dilution effect, it would be a known drug interaction.

[[Drug interaction]]s are a complex topic. Simplistically, drug interactions can be classified as either synergistic or inhibitory interactions. In addition, drug interactions can occur directly at the site of action through common pathways, or indirectly through metabolism of the drug in the [[liver]] or through elimination in the [[kidney]]. Pancuronium and thiopental have different sites of action, one in the brain and one at the neuromuscular junction. Since the half-life of thiopental is 11.5 hours, the metabolism of the drugs is not an issue when dealing with the short time frame in lethal injections. The only other plausible interpretation would be a direct one, or one in which the two compounds interact with each other. Supporters of the death penalty argue that this theory does not hold true. They state that even if the 100&nbsp;mg of pancuronium directly prevented 500&nbsp;mg of thiopental from working, sufficient thiopental to induce coma would be present for 50 hours. In addition, if this interaction did occur, then the pancuronium would be incapable of causing paralysis.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Supporters of the death penalty state that the claim that the pancuronium prevents the thiopental from working, yet is still capable of causing paralysis, is not based on any scientific evidence and is a drug interaction that has never before been documented for any other drugs.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}