Mississippi is planning to introduce executions by firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber because of a shortage of the drugs the US state normally uses.

A bill proposing the death penalty can be carried out using the less conventional methods was passed in Mississippi’s House of Representatives on Wednesday. It will now move to the state Senate.

Bill 638 was proposed due to a shortage of the drugs necessary for lethal injection, meaning no executions have been carried out in Mississippi since 2012, despite 47 prisoners being on death row.

The alternative drugs the state plans to use have caused wide concern and the state government faces several lawsuits on the grounds that they would violate the eighth amendment of the Constitution limiting cruel and unusual punishment.