War on drugs' blocks medical access to morphine

The Vancouver Sun, Gerry Bellett, 20 September 2011

Patients suffering from terminal illnesses in some countries denied pain killer, UBC Graduate School of Journalism study finds

A study by University of B.C. journalism students says the global war on illicit drugs is preventing patients suffering terminal illnesses in some countries from having sufficient access to morphine to control their pain.

The year-long study done by the UBC Graduate School of Journalism involved teams travelling to India, Ukraine and Uganda to see how those countries manage pain.

The results of The Pain Project can be found here.

The report was released in advance of a United Nations conference in New York this week on the global challenges of treating cancer and other diseases.

Prof. Peter Klein, UBC's acting graduate-school director, said that unlike many global health problems, pain treatment is not about money or lack of drugs, as morphine costs pennies per dose and is easy to manufacture.

He said bureaucratic hurdles and the chilling effect of the war on drugs were the main obstacles to morphine access in some countries.

"The story of global morphine shortages is one of those issues that both the media and the medical community have overlooked," said Klein.

He said he became interested in pursuing the story after talking with a member of Doctors Without Borders, who found a lack of morphine in a number of countries he visited.

"For instance, in India, which is the largest supplier of medical morphine in the world, it's virtually unavailable in most parts of the country except for one state [Kerala]," said Klein.

Klein said some countries, such as India, had over-reacted to UN regulations regarding access to opiates - an unintended result of the war on drugs.

Uganda was chosen an example of a Third World success story on how the issue could be overcome, while Ukraine was a case study in the problems caused by too much bureaucracy in cancer care.

The website offers videos from each country showing how patients there struggle with pain.

One shows a former Ukrainian KGB officer dying of prostate cancer who sleeps with a gun under his pillow "in case the pain becomes unbearable," while another shows an Indian doctor frustrated with drug laws who mixes readily available analgesics to ease the pain of his cancer patients.

A third shows a Ugandan nurse who led a movement to reform that country's drug laws affecting morphine distribution and palliative care.

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