The on-going issue with sodium thiopental, the lethal injection drug that’s in very short supply, just keeps getting weirder.

The last time I wrote about the drug, it was because California’s supply was set to expire and the state couldn’t get the go-ahead from the courts to use their last batch to kill Albert Brown. The time before that, it was because Hospira, the drug’s manufacturer, expressed disapproval with its use in executions because using it to kill people runs counter to their purpose in making it, namely to “improve or save lives.”

Now, Brian Evans, over at the Amnesty International USA blog, wonders about the fact that a number of states — California included — have brand-new batches of sodium thiopental, despite the supply problems, and are refusing to reveal where they got it.

This is undoubtedly the best part of Evans’ post:

California’s new batch of sodium thiopental expires in 2014.  Hospira’s spokesman Daniel Rosenberg to the Arizona Republic, “The expiration dates for lots last manufactured by Hospira are for 2011. Therefore, product with an expiration date of 2014 cannot be Hospira product.”  Since Hospira is the only FDA approved manufacturer of this drug, what is it that California has?

Man, that’s a good question.