Union government's passing of  the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act Amendment Bill is a big relief for scores of oncologists and cancer patients in the country. This is because they could now have an easy access to morphine to control pain in cancer patients.

The NDPS Act, 1985 was too stringent and called for cumbersome clearances. This led to inordinate delays impacting the access of morphine to 2.5 million  cancer patients in the country. But on February 21, 2014, the Rajya Sabha passed the amendments to the NDPS Act that brought an end despair of pain management, stated oncologists form the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.

Although Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology has a license to source and store morphine, its panel of oncologists were concerned over the strict approval processes for morphine which had no formal statute.

So far on only 15 states including Karnataka and two Union territories  in the country came under the ambit of the revised NDPS Act, 1985 making opioids or oral morphine to control cancer pain difficult to source.

The remaining 15 out of 29 states in the country were forced to put up with stringent norms compared to the revised Act.  Bureaucratic processes, corruption, disinterest by pharmaceutical companies to formulate and dispense morphine were seen as serious bottlenecks, stated oncologists.

“Medical  professionals also lack the education and experience in handling patients with morphine as they view it as an end of life medication.  Even though morphine recommended in cancer  pain management by WHO, patient access to morphine is marred by  stringent opioids regulation and government policies,” Dr Raghavendra R, Consultant, Integrative Oncology, HCG.

According to the Dr Vijay Kumar, director, Kidwai Institute of Oncology, the passing of the NDPS Act is major consolation for oncologists as much as for the patients. The Act will now ensure easy access to the morphine which is used to treat 2.5 million cancer patients annually  with one million new cases in the country.  The disease is one of the leading causes of fatality with a chance of the disease rising five-fold by 2025.

Cancer pain has a huge physical and  psychological impact.  More than 50 percent  of all cancer patients and 70 per cent  of advanced cancer cases suffer from pain sometime during the dreaded disease. The pain could be excruciating in around 30 per cent of the patients. Pain relief is unsatisfactory in 50 percent to  80 per cent of   cancer patients.  It is also reported that  25 per cent  patients succumb because of  unbearable pain. This indicates the importance of  easy access to morphine, pointed out Dr. Ganesha Dev Vashishta, Chief Radiation Oncologist, BGS Global Hospitals.