When I think of the war on drugs, I think of conservatives in western countries and their prohibition against marijuana. Of course, it’s a much bigger issue than that. It’s a war in which pleasure is something to deny and fear. But this war goes beyond mere denial of pleasure. It denies relief to those who require relief from physical and mental pain.
No one suffers more under this draconian war than those who live with pain, especially in third world countries.
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 has overlooked,” said Klein.
He said he became interested in pursuing the story after talking with a member of Doctors Without Borders who’d found a lack of morphine in a number of countries he’d 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.
