Jul 20 2011
Freedom From Pain
If you are a patient with a terminal disease, how painfully you live out the remainder of your life depends on where you live. Patients in mostly wealthy countries can expect to have easy access to drugs like Morphine. However, in poor countries like India, terminal patients often live out the last few months and years of their lives in excruciating pain. This right to palliative care, as it’s called, is increasingly being seen as a human right. In a new documentary by Journalism students at the University of British Columbia called Freedom from Pain, the issue is explored in detail. What they found was that the global “war on drugs,” had resulted in many nations regulating drugs so strictly, that even cancer patients had little to no access to them. Featuring doctors, patients, and activists in India, Ukraine, and Uganda, Freedom From Pain reveals the shocking conditions facing patients, and the growing movement to raise awareness of the right to palliative care. The short documentary will air today on Al Jazeera English on the program People and Power.
GUEST: Jenna Owsianick, Vancouver based journalist and a field producer from Uganda for the film
Find out more about the film at www.internationalreporting.org/pain
Freedom From Pain debuts tonight on Al Jazeera English’s show, People and Power. For showtimes in your area and more inforamtion visit the film’s webpage here http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/07/2011720113555645271.html
One Response to “Freedom From Pain”
The War on Drugs failed $1 Trillion ago! This money could have been used for outreach programs to clean up the bad end of drug abuse by providing free HIV testing, free rehab, and clean needles. Harmless drugs like marijuana could be legalized to help boost our damaged economy. Cannabis can provide hemp for countless natural recourses and the tax revenue from sales alone would pull every state in our country out of the red! Vote Teapot, PASS IT, and legalize it. Voice you opinion with the movement and read more on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/01/vote-teapot-2011.html