Update: May 13

Apologies to those who came by to get an update on my travels. Spending time in front of a computer has not been a priority while I’ve been away. For the first time in years I’ve been un-tethered and it feels pretty damn go0d. I’ll add some photos when I get home in roughly two weeks.

Cheers.

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I’m off to Thailand on Thursday and I’ll be gone until the end of May.

The best way to get in touch while I’m away is through email. You can get me at evan@evanduggan.com. Some of you can get a hold of me via Facebook. I can also be reached on Twitter. (@evanbduggan).

I’ll return phone messages when I get back.

For those interested in my travels, I’ll try to post a few entries about what I’m up to. I’ll be taking lots of photos too and will try to keep my gallery up to date.

Enjoy the playoffs Vancouverites. I’m crossing my fingers the Canucks will still be hanging around by the time I get back during the third round.

Five per cent of the world is consuming 95 per cent of the globe’s morphine supplies, leaving roughly 5 billion people vulnerable to chronic pain if and when it comes.

Take a moment and check out A World of Pain on CBS News.

It’s the latest partnership in the Pain Project, our ongoing project on an under-reported global health issue.

More on the International Reporting Program is available here.

One of my favourite shows on television is PBS’s Frontline.

It premiered a great doc last night on Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster last March.

Nuclear Aftershocks raises several important questions about what happened in Japan, and whether the disaster should have been anticipated and prevented. It also shows how many countries, including the United States, have to decide what to do next with nuclear-generated power in light of Japan’s nuclear meltdown.

Japan appears to have taken several large steps away from nuclear power as a direct consequence of what happened, and could phase out nuclear reactors entirely. Law makers in Germany have shifted away from nuclear too, buttressed by powerful public opinion and fear.

The doc shows that–at this point–there is no environmentally sustainable alternative to nuclear energy, which can generate enough clean power to bridge the gap between sources such as wind and solar, and what is required for base energy requirements.

Germany for one is looking at using coal to bridge that gap.

The questions: are we willing to risk the consequences of future nuclear disasters? Can we afford not to?

Canadians who experience extreme pain can usually halt their agony with pain killers. That’s a reality that most of us take for granted, but in most parts of the world, it’s not an option.

Bureaucracy and the war on drugs are preventing those who need help the most from accessing highly effective narcotic pain killers, such as morphine. We traveled to India, Ukraine and Uganda to find out why.

Life in Pain is latest chapter of our work, broadcast on Global television, and available here.

The documentary report was shot and produced by a team of students, and teachers from the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism International Reporting Program (IRP). Peter W. Klein, an award-winning producer who is the director of the UBC School of Journalism and the IRP, led the project.

More than half the countries in the world have little to no access to pain medications, the result of bureaucratic hurdles and the chilling effect of the global war on drugs.

We traveled to India, Ukraine and Uganda to put a human face on just some of the millions of patients around the globe forced to suffer long-term illnesses in excruciating pain.

Here’s the result of our year-long investigation.

For those who didn’t come across this in July when the documentary first premiered on Al Jazeera’s People & Power, our film Freedom from Pain is still available on AJE’s website.

The doc was reported and filmed by students, myself included, from the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism.

We traveled to India, Uganda and the Ukraine to figure out why the so many people–as many as 80 per cent of the world’s population–goes without pain killers when they need them the most.

If you’re moved by what you see, please spread it around.

Our documentary Freedom From Pain is now available online at Al Jazeera’s People & Power.

Please take the time to check it out. If you like it, spread it around.

Also visit InternationalReporting.org to learn about other projects from the international reporting program at the University of British Columbia.

Please take the time to view our new documentary called Freedom From Pain. It airs on the Al Jazeera English program People & Power on Wednesday July 20 at 3:30 p.m. pt.

Nine journalism students, myself included, traveled to India, Ukraine, and Uganda to investigate how countries around the world treat patients suffering from extreme medical pain.

What we found was alarming: Millions of people in the world are suffering from advanced cancers, horrific wounds, and terminal illnesses with virtually no access to painkillers. But unlike so many global health problems, we found that the lack of pain treatment isn’t about money or shortage of drugs. Morphine — the gold standard in pain treatment — is not only cheap, but is also readily available. We discovered that inflexible, outdated bureaucracies and an irrational fear of narcotics are responsible for the suffering of so many people around the world. Some experts have even compared the suffering of these millions of patients to torture.

However, there is hope. We met with pioneers and doctors in the medical and human rights communities that tirelessly fight to get morphine to patients who need it most and end the needless suffering.

For more information please email me at evan@evanduggan.com.

A press release will be available on Monday, July 18.

I put a few more pictures up on flickr from our reporting trip to India in February.

Click here or on one the photos along the sidebar (below) to access the entire album.

Poppies in Rajasthan, India. Two days before the opium harvest.

Are now up in my flickr account. Just click on one of the photos along the side (below) and you can access the entire album.