The death penalty is a very divisive political issue. Recently, even Pope Francis condemned the practice as "inadmissable."

Critics are growing wearier as states jettison efforts to make the practice, at minimum, more "humane." Lethal injection has long been described as one of the more inhumane capital punishment methods — and it’s not hard to imagine why.

Acquiring the drugs used for lethal injection is a huge problem, and some suggest this is leading to some very problematic developments — like the use of the popular opioid fentanyl in executions.

Nebraska recently used fentanyl to execute Carey Dean Moore. This is the first time ever in the U.S. that fentanyl has been used in an inmate’s execution, and the move has caused much controversy.

The four-drug cocktail used in Nebraska included "diazepam, a tranquilizer; fentanyl citrate, a powerful synthetic opioid that can block breathing and knock out consciousness; cisatracurium besylate, a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart."

Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture execution-friendly drugs are not excited, as their products come to symbolize controversial deaths beyond the usual opioid overdoses that already tarnish their reputations.

As the public grew aware of Nebraska’s plans to use lethal injection, so did implicated drug companies. Up until the last hour, German company Fresenius Kabi attempted to use the courts to block use of two of its products in Nebraska’s lethal four-drug cocktail.

More controversial is that Fresenius Kabi claimed in court that Nebraska obtained the drugs illegally since it "has strict contracts with distributors that ban sales to prisons for executions or to anyone other than hospitals and other medical users."

Additionally, the illegal acquisition of drugs raises the specter that they are improperly handled, therefore they could be ineffective or cause adverse effects during an execution — causing it to be considered "inhumane."

Although this possibility was raised by Fresenius Kabi in court, Lincoln’s federal district court allowed the execution to proceed. And it did on the morning of Aug. 14.

In the aftermath of the execution, there’s close to a consensus among drug companies that its products should not be part of U.S. executions.

Fentanyl is deadly; it’s 30 times the strength of heroin. Both Prince and Tom Petty supposedly had it in their systems when they died. With an average of 100 U.S. deaths daily in the opioid epidemic, it’s paradoxical that states are seeking the drug out for executions amidst already existing controversy about lethal injection (and the death penalty more generally.)

According to Rolling Stone magazine, one-third of the 65,000 fatal opioid overdoses in 2016 involved fentanyl. Between July 2017 and September 2017, fentanyl deaths increased by 30 percent.

It is a very paradoxical situation when we have state authorities — possibly illegally — acquiring fentanyl for use in executions while also pursuing and prosecuting its street users.

Fentanyl pills can be as cheap as $10 and "can be easily ordered online and shipped to the U.S." Also, the drug can be found mixed in other compounds. This may have been the case when Prince thought he was taking Vicodin, but it was laced with fentanyl — causing his overdose.

As the dust settles on Nebraska’s latest version of lethal injection, Nevada is debating a similarly controversial planned lethal injection.

New Jersey-based Alvogen manufactures the sedative midazolam, which is set to be used, along with fentanyl, in a three-drug cocktail to execute Scott Raymond Dozier. Alvogen, which claims Nevada procured the drug through "subterfuge," is using the courts to stop the use of its drug in Dozier’s execution.

That dispute is holding up Dozier’s execution for now. It remains unclear what the future will hold for states determined to practice lethal injections and drug companies that want nothing to do with the practice.