LEGAL PILL HELPS COCAINE ADDICTS KICK CRAVINGS, RESEARCHERS REVEAL

The hottest topic in cocaine addiction is another drug -- a medicine
already sold to wake up narcoleptics. Hundreds of cocaine users are
testing whether the legal pill, called modafinil, could help them kick
the addiction, and there's early evidence that it may. In addition to
blunting cocaine's notorious cravings, modafinil might also counter
the damage that cocaine wreaks on users' brain circuits -- damage that
in turn fuels the cycle of addiction.

The prospect of that double-whammy has the U.S. National Institutes of
Health spending $10.8 million US researching modafinil as a potential
cocaine treatment. Results from the first of three key clinical trials
could arrive by year's end.

Dr. Charles Dackis of the University of Pennsylvania led a pilot study
that suggested modafinil more than doubled addicts' chances of going
cocaine-free for at least three weeks. He said several modafinil
testers reported they had flushed their cocaine down the toilet.

"I've been treating cocaine-addicted patients for something like 25
years, more, and I've never heard of anybody throwing away cocaine,"
says Dackis.