Expert: Jacqui - 8/9/2009

Question
I have one of these questions that no one has the answer to.
Since poppy production is illegal in all but the most radical countries, where does the tons of morphine, etc. used in US Hospitals and around the world come from? Where is it grown?
How is it environmentally attained for surgery, burns and cancer relief? I want to know how the hospital industry gets supplied with this illegal drug used in LARGE quantity for pain relief? when it it's growing is banned everywhere???????


Answer
Hi EM ES,

As I am an Australian I can tell you the answer to this one straight away.  Tasmania is an island state at the bottom of Australia and there is a large legal poppy production industry there.  Interestingly, when one of the territories of Australia, the ACT (it is a bit like the Distict of Columbia and isnt' a state), wanted to introduce a trial of prescription heroin to highly dependent people, the US threatened to stop buying our legal poppies.  Nice one america.

Anyway, you raise a really good point.  There is a significant argument that as the drug laws currently stand (i.e.: the war on drugs), many countries do not have access to enough legal opiates to adequately treat people who really need them.  I attended a conference recently and some really sad statistics were put to us that in some developing countries, only about 1% of cancer patients have access to adquate pain relief during palliative care.

There is some information about access to pain medications within the context of drug control on this page:
http://www.ihra.net/May2009
It is right down the bottom and there are links to other sites.

I hope that answers your question.  If you would like any more information, please let me know!

Take care, and whatever you do, do it safely!

Regards,
Jacqui