Russia's war on drugs leaves patients without pain relief

By Fiona Clark

A change to the Russian law governing narcotics now enshrines a terminally ill patient's right to pain relief, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can get the drugs they need.

In February last year, Rear Admiral Vyacheslav Apanasenko held a gun to his head and shot himself. The 66-year-old former head of the rocket artillery unit of Russia's naval forces had stage IV cancer and was in unbearable pain. His family had been battling through a bureaucratic system that is repeatedly described as “hell” in the Russian media to get the opioid-based pain relief he needed.

Apanasenko is one of more than 40 people over the past year or so who have taken their own lives because they could not obtain appropriate pain relief. According to 2009 estimates, a mere 15% of the 217 000 or so terminally ill patients with cancer or HIV who needed opioid pain relievers received them. And the process they have to go through to try to get them is gruelling.

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