Using Drugs to Cure Drug Addiction

Doesn’t sound like it makes much sense, does it? How could injecting a drug take away an addiction to another drug?

Vaccines to help guide recovery in nicotine, cocaine, heroin and meth addictions are in the works. Doctors have actually already seen a 38% reduced use of cocaine in addicts with the use of one of these new vaccines.

They work by stimulating the body’s immune system and creating antibodies that adhere to the abused drug and prevent it from reaching the brain. This process will inhibit the abused drug from creating a ‘high’ which is the characteristic in drugs people get addicted too. We start to crave the next ‘high’ and thus, abuse substances to achieve such. Without the ‘high’ in place we will no longer feel the need to continue use of addictive substances.

So what is the likelihood that vaccines for drug addiction will actually hit the market?

Legal and financial barriers seem to be set in place, but the government looks to fund a large clinical trial of a nicotine vaccine based on the findings of the cocaine vaccine. Recent scientific developments have shown enough promise of these vaccines to continue work, but only the nicotine vaccine has promise of reaching the market in the near future.

What do you think about these scientific findings? Should they be considered a medical advancement? Or are they a setback, in that, they are justifying injecting another foreign substance that alters the body’s natural processes?