Published on: November 23, 2015

“Seventy-five percent of the world’s people in need do not have access to pain relieving medicine,” says a report published by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and Minister of Home Affairs, Anand Grover, former U.N. special rapporteur on the Right to Health, India and Michel Kazatchkine, former executive director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “Where you live determines whether you will be able to access to controlled medicines, particularly opiates, when confronting an acute terminal, chronic or painful illness. Ninety-two per cent of the world’s morphine is consumed by only 17% of the world’s population, primarily the United States and Europe.”

In the report, titled “War on drugs means millions are needlessly dying in pain“, the three experts argue that “where you are born should not be a determining factor in whether you are forced to live with avoidable pain in the event of illness.”

The report adds, “The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Model Lists of Essential Medicines provides the minimum that governments should provide to people in need, including morphine, buprenorphine and methadone. These controlled medicines should be accessible, affordable and available through mechanisms that are acceptable to the people in need.”

Anand Grover and Lawyers’ Collective which he heads, and his colleague Tripti Tandon have been working shoulder to shoulder with Pallium India in the Amendment of NDPS Act and its follow up.