Director-General/Executive Director
Deputy Prime Minister,
Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Distinguished guests,
I’m pleased to join at this event to speak up for those who are going through needless pain around the world, those who are denied access to essential medicines containing controlled substances.
Let me start by saying that drug policies were created to protect people and not to undermine their access to the medicines they need.
That is why we have to join forces to keep people safe, alleviate unnecessary suffering, and make sure no patient is left behind.
The sad reality is that roughly 80 percent of the world’s population live in countries that lack proper access to essential controlled medicines.
This means that more than 6 billion people are living in countries where important pain medications are largely unavailable.
It means that millions of terminal cancer patients and end-stage AIDS patients, among others, are suffering with excruciating pain each year without relief.
And it means that important treatments for mental health disorders, neurological disorders, and drug use disorders are unavailable to millions who need them.
We must put an end to their struggle and make the treatments they need available to them.
And we must ensure that we do so without leaving room for these substances to be diverted into non-medical use.
That is the letter and spirit of the international drug control conventions.
Standing in the way are problems of availing adequate resources, adopting relevant policies, and having the needed political will.
Pain relief, especially in palliative care, is low tech and can be provided at a relatively low cost.
For example, morphine, the gold standard for pain treatment, is neither expensive to produce nor complicated to dispense.
And yet access to morphine and other pain medications still falls clearly along global economic lines.
For example, over 90 per cent of all morphine worldwide is used in a handful of high-income countries, where only 17 per cent of the global population live.
This global gap suggests that access to controlled medicines requires a level of investment that is within reach, but those investments need to be made.
Conflicts and natural disasters also disrupt access to essential medicines while multiplying needs for such medicines to alleviate suffering.
Low and middle-income countries are more likely to feel the worst impacts, making the investment more urgent than ever.
At the same time, no amount of investment or resources can make up for unhelpful policies.
Restrictive drug policies that go beyond the drug control conventions contribute to lower availability, while adding little to security.
And doctors working in restrictive or uncertain legal environments are less likely to prescribe pain relief or psychiatric medication for their patients.
We must end the ambiguity and stigma by reforming outdated policies; by sticking to what has been agreed and to what works; by trusting the international control system and following the science.
Excellencies,
At the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, we know that we must step up efforts and strengthen partnerships to ensure that no patient is left behind.
Towards this goal, in 2022, we co-led a joint initiative along with Ambassador D’Hoop of Belgium, who was Chairing the CND at the time, in partnership with WHO and INCB, promoting improved access and availability for patients everywhere.
And to put our words into action, new UNODC programming is building connections in the medical field, recently launching a network of young doctors from around the world to discuss sustainable solutions for stubborn barriers to access.
At the same time, we are developing technical assistance tools to help address the diversion of controlled medicines within health systems.
To further strengthen partnerships across sectors, UNODC has established an informal interagency technical working group including UNDP, WHO, and UNIDO, among others.
And we are working to establish national coordination mechanisms which bring together drug regulatory bodies, health care providers, and patients, in order to tailor programming to local needs supported by the needed political will and commitments.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Medicines are not luxuries, and guaranteeing the right to health is not optional.
We must act now, and we must act together, to protect everyone’s health and wellbeing, and to prevent more suffering.
Thank you.