A Modest Proposal for Capital Punishment

Ruth Snyder. In 1928, a reporter sneaked a camera into Sing Sing Prison and took the first photograph of an execution by electric chair. 

Certain states in the Union, particularly Texas and Oklahoma, are scrambling to find new ways to effectively and "humanely" kill people since the drugs used for lethal injections are nearly impossible to come by anymore. They have been trying compounds mixed by amateur chemists, secret drugs provided by secret laboratories, and now in Oklahoma they will try nitrogen gas.

Allow me to suggest a simple solution. Use heroin.

• It's readily available on many urban street corners. Prison guards are already buying it for sale to prisoners.
• It's street price is a lot less than the cost of these designer execution drugs.
• You don't need to hire a doctor to administer it. There are many prisoners very experience in injecting heroin.
• It is totally humane. There is a feeling of euphoria followed by respiratory failure and death. You might have fewer prisoners appealing their death sentences if they know they will be going out  on a fine smack high.  

I know there will be some killjoys out there saying that an execution should be a dreadful experience and heroin would just make things too humane. I'm sure some mother's groups will complain that using heroin for executions will encourage children to try the drug just like California's gas chamber has caused an epidemic of kids experimenting with cyanide.

Sure, heroin is illegal but so is every other execution method used. Try strapping someone to a table and injecting fertilizer* into their veins and see how long it take to be accused of being a psychopathic torturer.

So there you are Gov. Fallin. No need to thank me.

*One lethal chemical used is potassium chloride, also used for fertilizer.