On the sidelines of the General Debate of the 76th UN General Assembly, and five years after the strong commitments made at the UNGASS 2016 to improve access to controlled medicines.

Helen Clark (Global Commission), Lansana Gberie (Sierra Leone), Githinji Gitahi (Amref Health Africa), Félix Baumann (Switzerland), Felicia Knaul (IAHPC), and Tedros Ghebreyesus (WHO) discuss the global crisis of access to controlled medicines and give recommendations to address the unacceptable remaining disparities in the treatment of pain and drug dependence.