AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The growing suspicions surrounding where states obtain lethal injections have motivated the Missouri attorney general to propose something never previously tried — establishing a lab where the state can make its own execution drugs.

The idea, if widely adopted, could remove shadowy compounding pharmacies from the nation's execution system and offer a reliable supply of the deadly chemicals that have become hard for prisons to obtain. State legislative leaders say the proposal deserves consideration.

Chris Koster first broached the idea Thursday in a speech to the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis. He called it a better alternative than relying on "an uneasy cooperation" with medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies.

Koster said obtaining execution drugs has become so problematic that a new idea was needed.