Middle East & Africa | A nasty side effect

Outdated drug policies leave millions of Africans in agony

The war on drugs has hurt patients who need painkillers

|DAKAR AND KAMPALA

ANNA HAS just hit puberty and she can barely move. She has late-stage cancer and a tumour protrudes from her neck. As a nurse walks in, Anna (not her real name) slowly covers her face with a veil. She is dying in agony in Dantec, one of Senegal’s main hospitals. But the doctors don’t have enough morphine to give her.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Of puritans and pain”

The battle for Venezuela

From the February 2nd 2019 edition

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