Plans To Vaccinate Children Against Drug Addiction

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Plans To Vaccinate Children

Against Drug Addiction

By Sophie Goodchild and Steve Bloomfield

The Independent - UK

7-24-4

 

A radical scheme to vaccinate children against future drug

addiction is being considered by ministers, The Independent on Sunday can

reveal.

 

Under the plans, doctors would immunise children at risk of

becoming smokers or drug users with an injection. The scheme could operate

in a similar way to the current nationwide measles, mumps and rubella

vaccination programme.

 

Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from

the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and

cocaine pointless to take. Such vaccinations are being developed by

pharmaceutical companies and are due to hit the market within two years.

 

The Department of Trade and Industry has set up a special project

to investigate ways of using new scientific breakthroughs to combat drug and

nicotine addiction.

 

A national anti-drug immunisation scheme is one of the proposals

being put forward by the Brain Science, Addiction and Drugs project, an

expert committee of scientists appointed by the Government earlier this

year.

 

Professor David Nutt, a leading government drugs adviser who sits

on the committee, told the IoS that anti-drug vaccines for children are

likely to be among the panel's recommendations when it reports next March.

 

Professor Nutt, head of psychopharmacology at the University of

Bristol and a senior member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs,

said: " People could be vaccinated against drugs at birth as you are against

measles. You could say cocaine is more dangerous than measles, for example.

It is important that there is a debate on this issue. This is a huge topic -

addiction and smoking are major causes of premature death. "

 

According to the Government's own figures, the cost of drug

addiction - through related crime and health problems - to the economy is

£12bn a year. There is a strong incentive for the Government to find new

ways to halt spiralling addiction. Last week, the IoS revealed that cocaine

use had trebled in Britain with increasing numbers of users switching to

highly addictive crack cocaine.

 

Scientists are already conducting trials for drugs that can be

used by doctors to vaccinate against cocaine, heroin and nicotine addiction.

 

Xenova, the British biotechnology firm, has carried out trials on

an anti-cocaine vaccine which showed that 58 per cent of patients remained

cocaine-free after three months.

 

Meanwhile, experts at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego,

California, have developed a super-virus, harmless to humans, which produces

proteins that can block or reduce the effects of cocaine.

 

The team at Scripps tested the virus on rats by injecting it into

their noses twice a day for three days.

 

On the fourth day, the rats were given a shot of cocaine. The

researchers found that cocaine had more effect on the rats not injected with

the virus than those that were. Scientists hope that the virus will help

stop the cravings experienced by cocaine users for the drug by blocking the

pleasure they normally associate with cocaine. This anti-drug medication is

expected to be available to users within the next two years in the form of a

nasal spray.

 

Proposals to introduce a national anti-drug vaccination programme

have been given a cautious welcome by MPs and experts.

 

Ian Gibson, head of the Commons Science and Technology Committee,

said the Government would have to carry out public consultation. " There is

no reason to think this would not be a starter or beneficial, " said Dr

Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North. " But ... proper consultation with the

public needs to happen well in advance. "

 

David Hinchliffe, chairman of the Commons Health Committee and

Labour MP for Wakefield, said: " This could have a huge impact on society in

terms of preventing damage to others and dealing with addicts. [but] the

ethical perspective does need to be looked at closely. "

 

The National Treatment Agency, which manages drug-addiction

programmes, welcomed any new ways of treating addiction but said there was

no " magic bullet " .

 

© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=544439

 

 

 

Comment

From James D.

7-26-4

 

Would this render Novacaine and similar drugs ineffective?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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