This report was published by the Global Commission on Drug Policy in October 2015. The report looks at the gross inequality amongst the majority of the worlds population, in relation of access to opioid analgesics. As a result of the overly restrictive UN drug control system, most people do not have access to controlled medicines, seeing as states take a criminal justice approach to drug control rather than a public health one.
Furthermore a lot of states operate with overly burdensome regulations which in turn creates an uncertain environment for practitioners prescribing these controlled substances. Topics covered in the report are the urgent need to ensure greater access to controlled medicines in the world, the human rights crisis and suffering caused by the lack of access to controlled medicines, the international obligation states are under to ensure access to controlled medicines, factors that act along side the international drug control system which hindered the access of such controlled medicines, the lack of an evidence based, human rights-oriented public health approach, the failure of the INCB and recommendation for further steps to amend said failure, the positive public health and cost effectiveness of treatment of opioid dependence through controlled medicines, recommendations for the framework of the UN drug control bodies, funding of a WHO led international programme to ensure access to controlled medicines, and the issue of the criminalization of people who use cannabis for medical purposes
Citation: Global Commission on Drug Policy, 'The Negative Impact of Drug Control on Public Health: The Global Crisis of Avoidable Pain' (2015)