COCAINE VACCINE WORKED ON 38% OF ADDICTS

A vaccine helped block the high felt by cocaine users in 38 per cent
of people who took it, U.S. researchers said Monday, offering promise
of a new approach to treating those addicted to the drug.

The aim is to prevent cocaine's rewarding effects -- the high -- in
order to reduce cravings that trigger drug relapses.

"The concept works," said Dr. Thomas Kosten of Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, whose study appears in the Archives of General
Psychiatry.

Researchers studied 94 volunteers, mostly users of crack cocaine,
which is a solid, smokable form of the drug.