Katherine Irene Pettus, Advocacy Officer, International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC),advises ehospice readers on the important distinction between ‘medicines’ and ‘drugs’.
The 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs adopted: “A drug-free world; we can do it!” as its slogan. The Commision on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has set an explicit policy goal of reducing global demand and supply of ‘drugs’.
This leaves a very narrow policy space for palliative care advocates to promote increased supply and demand of medical opioids unless we specifically, consistently (and correctly) refer to them as ‘essential medicines’…read more
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