News Pain-relief shortage in poorer countries ‘due to stigma of US opioids crisis’

[thegreenhand]

Pain-relief shortage in poorer countries ‘due to stigma of US opioids crisis’​

Kaamil Ahmed
The Guardian
4 Aug 2022

Excerpt:

Patients suffering chronic pain are being denied treatment in low-income countries because of restrictive laws and concerns about opioid addiction, which have been fuelled by the crisis engulfing the US.

Palliative doctors, who say there is a huge unmet need for pain-relief drugs in poorer countries, have called for laws to be relaxed and for the stigma around opioids to be addressed.

Only 17% of the morphine produced worldwide in 2020 for medical purposes was consumed in low- and middle-income countries, despite them being home to close to 83% of the global population, according to the latest figures from the International Narcotics Control Board, which monitors drug use. It said the imbalance in usage has barely changed in 20 years.

A 2017 Lancet commission study found that Haiti received an annual average of just 5mg of morphine-equivalent opioids for each patient requiring palliative care – 0.8% of what is needed – compared with the US, which received 55,000mg for each patient, more than 3,000% of the required amount.

 

[thegreenhand]

I definitely fall into the trap of viewing the harms of drug prohibition as a ‘developed world’ problem

But a reminder that this is truly a global problem is often necessary