Global Lack of Access to Pain Medication

"Opioid medications are essential not only for drug dependence treatment but also for pain management. WHO estimates that 5 billion people live in countries with little or no access to controlled medicines that are used to treat moderate to severe pain.⁹⁰ Up to 80% of the estimated 1 million patients in the end stages of AIDS are in great pain, but very few have access to pain relieving drugs⁹¹ because of insufficient knowledge among physicians, inadequate health systems, fears of addiction, antiquated laws, and unduly strict regulations.⁹²"