POLITICIANS enjoy beating their chests about "zero tolerance".

On drugs. Binge drinking. Bullying. Sexual harassment. But what about zero tolerance for suffering?

As a society we allow our weakest - those with cancer, AIDS, chronic arthritis, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis - to writhe in pain because they can't get the right drugs. Many are helpless, innocent children.

An AMA study out today reveals 84 per cent of cancer kids suffer "a lot" or "a great deal" of pain in the last month of their life.

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