Story highlights The American Pharmacists Association passed a new policy banning members from participating in lethal injections

Pharmacists say role as health care providers conflicts with participation in lethal injection

The pharmacy association first adopted a policy against lethal injection in 1985

(CNN) The American Pharmacists Association is discouraging its members from participating in executions. On Monday, the group voted at its annual meeting to adopt a ban as an official policy, stating that "such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as healthcare providers."

This bolsters the association's previous positions to oppose the use of the term "drug" for chemicals used in lethal injection and to oppose laws that require or prohibit pharmacists from participation in lethal injection cases.

The group acted this week because of increased public attention on lethal injection, said Michelle Spinnler, spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association.

That spotlight includes a January Supreme Court decision to stay the execution for three death row inmates in Oklahoma. This was prompted b y Clayton Lockett's execution by lethal injection nearly one year ago in which he writhed on a gurney for 43 minutes before he died from a heart attack.

In Georgia last month, the execution of female death row inmate Kelly Renee Gissendaner was postponed as a precaution when the execution team checked the medications and discovered they looked cloudy.

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