RESEARCHERS HIGH ON MAKING FOLKS COKE-FREE

Blow this, baby.

A cocaine vaccine undergoing trials in the States could make kids drug-proof.

"It's being developed for the prevention of relapse in formerly
cocaine-addicted people," insists Frank Vocci, the director of treatment,
research and development at the U.S. National Institute for Drug Abuse in
Maryland, which is funding the trials.

The vaccine binds to cocaine in the blood and keeps most of it from
reaching the brain. It hasn't been determined how long it stays potent.

But Bill Corrigall, a physiology professor at U of T and scientist at the
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says he thinks the prospect of mass
anti-snow vaccinations is pretty remote.

"That's where you get into ethical and social responsibility issues. Why
would you immunize everyone in the world when such a small number of people
actually try cocaine?"

Peter Cohen, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who has
written on the vaccine, disagrees. "If it did last a long time, wouldn't
this be one of the duties of a parent taking care of child? They would be
free to immunize their kids the same way they would give them piano lessons."

Owned by CanTab Pharmaceuticals, a British company, the coke zapper could
be on the shelves within five years.