COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on Friday announced it would soon allow a new chemical cocktail to be shot intravenously during lethal injections.

Department rules allow a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone to be injected directly into a condemned inmate's muscles if the DRC's drug of choice, pentobarbital, is unavailable.

But a new policy -- effective Oct. 10 -- will allow midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a morphine derivative, to be injected directly into an inmate’s veins instead of his muscles.

“DRC is not eliminating or changing any current execution drugs or method,” DRC spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said in an email. “The policy has been enhanced to allow for a second, alternative intravenous drug due to difficulties in obtaining pentobarbital.”

No state has used midazolam alone or with other drugs to put an inmate to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Ohio used pentobarbital Sept. 25 to carry out the execution of Garfield Heights double murderer Harry Mitts Jr.

Ohio’s remaining supply of the drug expired at the end of September.

Supplies of pentobarbital around the country thinned out after its European manufacturer said the drug is not intended for executions and blocked sales. The move forced Ohio and other states to consider alternatives.

The DRC could replenish its pentobarbital supply if another manufacturer is found, Smith said.

Ohio’s next lethal injection – the execution of Summit County killer Ronald Phillips –is scheduled for Nov. 14. Phillips could be the first in the state to be injected with the duo of backup drugs.

The state executed 10 men using pentobarbital since the drug’s introduction in 2011.