NO QUICK FIX

It Will Take More Than A Shot In The Arm To Wipe Out Addiction

AT FIRST glance, vice vaccines look just great. These injections
promise to inactivate drugs such as cocaine, heroin, speed and
nicotine in the bloodstream before they reach the brain. Without the
"hit", people just won't come back for more (see p 22).

It's true that these vaccines are still being developed, so their full
risks and benefits are not yet clear. But all the signs are that for
people who are in danger of overdosing, or for addicts who want to get
themselves clean but need some help to overcome their craving, the
vaccines will be immensely valuable.

But like many new technologies, they also bring difficult choices.
Will convicted criminals who steal to feed their drug habit be allowed
back onto the street if they agree to be vaccinated, for example?
Could a judge even compel these people to be vaccinated?

Perhaps the most contentious debate that vice vaccines have raised is
whether they should be given routinely to children, like polio or
measles vaccines. This is not a distant worry. No sooner have some
researchers published the results of vaccine trials than they have
found themselves inundated with requests from worried parents who want
their children vaccinated. Is this really what we want for future
generations?

For any society that values personal freedom, the answer has to be no.
People have the right to choose how to behave, whether it's good or
bad, legal or not. Let's not ignore the fact that millions of people
take illicit drugs for pleasure without becoming addicted.
Administering vice vaccines will mean that youngsters are no longer
free to make such choices for themselves. It would be like a return to
Pleasantville.

And, remember, we're just talking about illicit drugs here. One
vaccine under development acts against nicotine, and if it's nicotine
today, why not caffeine tomorrow? Society's attitudes to drugs change.
Forty years ago, smoking was fine. A century ago, American ship
operators were giving stevedores cocaine to speed up their work.

Like it or not, people have been taking mindaltering chemicals since
before recorded history. Each vaccine acts only against a specific
drug, and stopping people getting high on one drug will simply push
them to take others-as addiction researchers have already found. So
drug use won't go away, the drugs will just change.

Opposing the widespread use of vice vaccines for youngsters is not to
advocate drug use. By all means let vice vaccines spark a revolution
in detox clinics. But when it comes to helping children deal with
drugs, the way to help them is through education, ensuring that they
can follow lifestyles that are incompatible with drug taking, and
giving them the tools to spot risks and make informed choices.

The problem of drug abuse is bound up with modern society in complex
ways. Simple chemical solutions are unlikely to provide the whole answer.