Experts say pain management in the country will change drastically for the better once the bill is enacted
Morphine,
a derivative of opium, is the only analgesic known to relieve pain of
terminally ill cancer patients. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Rajya Sabha on Friday passed a legislation that will bring
much-needed relief to terminally ill patients who need palliative care.
It passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment)
Bill which was passed by Lok Sabha a day ago.
Had Rajya Sabha not passed it, the bill would have lapsed along with the expiry of the present of Lok Sabha. Cancer experts have been urging 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.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2011
was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 8, 2011 by Pranab
Mukherjee, the then Union finance minister. Subsequently, it was
referred to the parliamentary standing committee on Finance on September
13.
The bill amends the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of
1985, which provides for confiscation of illegally traded narcotic drugs
and psychotropic substances.
The law denies cancer patients easy access to certain pain relievers
like morphine. Provisions in the existing law also deters pharma
companies from producing drugs containing narcotics.
Existing law makes people suffer avoidable pain
The National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, a
document approved by the Union Cabinet on January 12, 2012, states that
tens of thousands of patients in India suffer from avoidable pain
because of the strict regulations.
The document says that India is home to one-sixth of world’s
population, but it consumes only one-thousandth of the total morphine
used in the world.
Experts have been highlighting that excessive regulations and
cumbersome procedures in many states discourage doctors from prescribing
and chemists from stocking narcotic drugs like morphine.
Ravindra Mohan, head of Knowledge Training Education Research with
Cansupport, an organisation working in the field of palliative care,
said that if the bill becomes the law, pain management in the country
will change drastically. It will make the drugs for pain management
available for the patients. It will be a big development in the field of
cancer treatment.
In November, when a national cancer meet was organised in Delhi,
Nagesh Simha, president of Indian Association of Palliative Care, said
that not giving cancer patients the treatment they need is violation of
their fundamental right. If the bill does not get the approval of
Parliament now, it will lapse, he had said.
