The influence of colonialism on the pain relief access abyss

This blog post was originally published by the EAPC blog and is available here.

Screams of pain punctuate households worldwide, but disproportionately more so in low and middle income countries.

Our home witnessed this for two years as my adoptive mother was ravaged by cancer. She was finally administered pentazocine two days before she died. It barely made a dent on the pain emanating from a backbone broken by cancer. As she took her last breath, we exhaled in guilty, tearful relief.

Twenty three years later, my biological mother lay dying of interstitial lung disease and needed oral morphine to ease her breathlessness. Despite working for a WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief, getting access to these pills in the most populated state in India was a nightmare. Ironically, the same state where the only government-run opium and alkaloids factory is located. A local doctor reluctantly prescribed oral morphine, which was then sent from Kerala – an approximate distance of 1952 kms.

Read more from Smriti Rana’s powerful piece for the EAPC (European Association for Palliative Care) Blog here.