Should the ban on medical use of contraband drugs be removed?

# The World Health Organization estimates that 4.8 million people a year with moderate to severe cancer pain do not receive appropriate treatment nor do another 1.4 million with late-stage AIDS.

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# Narcotics incites fear: doctors fear addicting patients, and law enforcement officials fear drug crime.

# Pain experts argue that it is cruel to deny dying patients drugs made from contraband products. Those who recover can mostly be weaned off.

# Six countries ' the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Australia ' consume 79 percent of the world's morphine, according to a 2005 estimate.