If you are in severe pain and struggling to get opioid medication in Indonesia, you are not alone.
Despite the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) recognizing several therapeutic opioids as essential medicines, Indonesia has one of the lowest levels of medical opioid use in the region, far below global and regional standards.
Indonesia consumes only 26 opioid doses per million people per day, compared with 1,467 doses in Malaysia and 200 in Timor Leste.
The problem is not a lack of medical need. It is government policy, our research shows.
One complicating factor is the government’s strict political approach to narcotics, which prioritizes consideration of potential harms over the real clinical need of patients to access essential medicines.
