Vaccine takes the kicks out of cocaine

Houston Chronicle:

The needle may be one of addiction's enduring symbols, but two Houston researchers hope injections of modified cocaine actually provide the first-ever medication for people hooked on the destructive drug.

The Baylor College of Medicine scientists have developed a cocaine vaccine, currently in clinical trials, that stimulates the immune system to attack the real thing when it's taken.

As a result, cocaine no longer provides a kick.

"For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful," said Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor who was assisted in the research by his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist. "At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high and will lose interest."

Kosten, who joined Baylor 18 months ago, asked the Food and Drug Administration in December to green-light a multi-institutional trial to begin in the spring. It presumably would be the final clinical hurdle before the vaccine might be approved for treatment.

Approval would mark a breakthrough in the treatment of cocaine addiction, which now mostly involves psychiatric counseling and 12-step programs. Over the years, Kosten notes, more than 50 pharmaceutical options have been investigated and found wanting.

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The questions include whether parents would be allowed to have their children inoculated; whether it would amount to coercion to make it a condition for lighter criminal sentences; whether employers might happen upon such information and use it discriminatorily; and whether to use it on pregnant addicts to protect the fetuses.

The questions don't just reverberate about this vaccine: Tom Kosten also is at work on vaccines for methamphetamine, heroin and nicotine. Two other nicotine vaccines are being investigated by other scientists.

"Anti-drug vaccines may provide an important weapon against addiction," said Frank Vocci, director of treatment research and development at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, which funded much of the research. "We're starting to see progress. We just need to see more."

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I don't see the ethical problem with this vaccine. It would appear to be wise to make it mandatory like the ones taken for diseases. Cocaine is a nose monster. It grabs people by the nose and many are incapable of making rationale responses once grabbed. If this were administered to the whole population it could put the drug dealers out of business. It could save Mexico from the drub insurgency that now plagues it and wipe out the FARC rebels in Columbia. It has huge potential for social good, and I see little downside to it.