80 percent of cancer patients not receive morphine because of legal shortcomings

80 percent of cancer patients do not receive morphine for anesthesia because of shortcomings in regulatory legal documents on the issue, storage and prescription of opioids. Representative of Ergene Public Foundation Taalaigul Sabyrbekova announced at a meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Control over Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursors.

According to her, more than 3,500 people die of cancer each year in Kyrgyzstan. 80 percent of patients experience unbearable pain. They need tableted morphine, but today it is not prescribed, firstly, because of fear of addiction to drugs. Secondly, since the Soviet era, there remained strict control over the storage and distribution of such drugs with a large number of unnecessary claims.

«We propose to simplify patients' access to pain medications. A working group of representatives of various ministries and departments was set up to consider the issue. All its members came to the conclusion that we can simplify the procedure. But we can not achieve anything for 3 years already. In addition, the need of patients for morphine is 15-18 kilograms per year, and we use only about 500 grams — 2.5 milligrams per person. This is below the critical level," Taalaigul Sabyrbekova said.

The need of patients for morphine is determined in amount of 66.7 milligrams per person daily. Only the last three months of patients' life are taken into account, when the pains are the strongest, the head of the fund explained.