The study, which analyses national drug control strategies of several dozen countries to see whether they address the question of controlled medicines, also found that the strategies of six countries with very low consumption do not acknowledge medical importance of controlled substances, although they do outline steps to prevent their misuse.
Only four of the country strategies analysed specifically address the need to ensure access to controlled medicines. These belonged to: Costa Rica, India, Nigeria and Ukraine.
Diederick Lohman, Associate Director with the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said: “One of the things we hope to achieve with this publication is for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to begin pushing countries to address this issue in their drug strategies.
“Drug strategies on both the national and international level need to clearly articulate objectives to ensure medical access to controlled substances.”
You can access the study on the Human Rights Watch website, and share it via social media.
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