Could Anti-Drug Vaccine Fight Addiction?

Aug. 19, 2004 -- A vaccine against highly addictive drugs could be offered to high-risk children in the United Kingdom, if a group of British experts has its way.

A government-appointed committee has proposed a national vaccination program for one of the fastest-growing child welfare concerns worldwide — drugs.

Under a program presented to British Parliament late last month, children in "high risk situations"— those whose family or socio-economic circumstances might make them more susceptible to drug addictions — would be vaccinated against highly addictive substances like cocaine, heroin and nicotine.

The rationale behind the proposal is simple — drugs and drug-related activities cost the government money, lots of it. So why not prevent addiction in the first place? If successful, claims the committee, it could save the economy billions of dollars each year.

"People could be vaccinated against drugs at birth as you are against measles," David Nutt, a member of the Brain Science, Addiction, and Drugs Committee, and drugs advisor to the British government, said in a published report. "You could say cocaine is more dangerous than measles, for example … addiction and smoking are major causes of premature death."

The vaccines would work like most other inoculations. Antibodies that recognize cocaine as an intruder are injected into the bloodstream. Once the antibodies have been introduced, they attach themselves to the cocaine molecules, preventing and "neutralizing" the effect of the drug. So, if a person vaccinated with the antibodies does take the drug, their body will not respond and they will not feel a "high."

'A National Program to Alter Behavior?'

Even in its very preliminary stages, the proposal has sparked controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The very idea [of child drug vaccinations] would be highly unethical. We have a lot of information missing, particularly safety risks," says Dr. Max Mehlman, a law and biomedical ethics professor at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland.