I'm pretty sure other parts of the world have chronic pain, I've seen it a lot here in South America. What we don't have is the drug culture, people look for a

I'm pretty sure other parts of the world have chronic pain, I've seen it a lot here in South America. What we don't have is the drug culture, people look for alternative ways to mitigate the pain. A quick googling gave me this WHO paper: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/hhr0511W.pdf https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/hhr0511W.pdf We found enormous unmet need for pain treatment. Fourteen countries reported no consumption of opioid pain medicines between 2006 and 2008, meaning that there are no medicines to treat moderate to severe pain available through legitimate medical channels in those countries. These countries are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, but are also found in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Central America