Cancer experts have urged the Indian government to ease regulations
on narcotic drugs that are recommended for alleviating excruciating pain
in cancer patients, especially those who are terminally ill and need
palliative care. For this, they urged the government to pass the pending
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill so that
hospitals in the country can procure morphine for terminally ill
patients.
The experts were speaking at the Indian Cancer Congress organised in
New Delhi last week. It is the first ever event held jointly by
different associations working in the field of oncology and related
subjects.
According to a few experts, the existing law denies cancer patients
easy access to certain pain killers and other medications which can
reduce the pain. To support their arguments, the participants cited the
National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, a
document approved by the Union Cabinet on January 12, 2012. It states
that tens of thousands of patients in India suffer from avoidable pain.
India, which is home to one-sixth of world’s population, consumes only
one-thousandth of total morphine used in the world, adds the document.
It also highlights “excessive regulations and cumbersome procedures”
in many states, which discourage doctors from prescribing and chemists
from stocking narcotic drugs like morphine.
At the conference, both the Indian Cancer Congress and the Indian
Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) asserted that it is high time that
the proposed amendments to the NDPS Act should be passed so that
India’s cancer patients get better pain medication.
Morphine demand
Morphine, a derivative of opium, is the only analgesic known to
relieve pain of terminally ill cancer patients. But India, despite being
one of the largest producers of morphine in the world, has restricted
its availability to its own people.
The policy document cited by the experts also highlights the
recommendation made by International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an
independent and quasi-judicial control organ for the implementation of
the United Nations drug conventions. The international body had
suggested that the whole world needs to improve availability of opioid
analgesics for medical use and India needs to simplify its existing NDPS
rules.
Nagesh Simha, president of IAPC, said that not giving cancer patients
the treatment they need is violation of their fundamental right. “It
has taken the Bill 15 years to reach where it is now. It was listed six
to seven times in the last Parliament session but could not be passed
due to one problem or the other. If the Bill does not get the approval
of the Parliament in coming winter session, it will lapse,” said Sinha.
The expert added that the politicians should join hands to speed up the
process of passing of the Bill and help thousands of suffering patients.
