Mexican scientists successfully test vaccine that could cut heroin addiction

[villian]

A group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.

Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.

The vaccine, which has been patented in the US, makes the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoked or injected it.

"It would be a vaccine for people who are serious addicts, who have not had success with other treatments and decide to use this application to get away from drugs," the institute's director Maria Elena Medina said on Thursday.

Scientists worldwide have been searching for drug addiction vaccines for several years, but none have yet been fully developed. A group at the US National Institute on Drug Abuse has reported significant progress in a vaccine for cocaine.

However, the Mexican scientists appear to be close to making a breakthrough on a heroin vaccine and have received funds from the US institute as well as the Mexican government.

During the tests, mice were given access to deposits of heroin over an extended period of time. Those given the vaccine showed a huge drop in heroin consumption, giving the institute hope that it could also work on people, Medina said.

Kim Janda, a scientist working on his own narcotics vaccines at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, said that the Mexican vaccine could function but with some shortcomings.

"It could be reasonably effective, but maybe too general and affect too many different types of opioids as well as heroin," Janda said.

Mexico has a growing drug addiction problem. Health secretary Jose Cordoba recently said the country now has about 450,000 hard drug addicts, particularly along the trafficking corridors of the US-Mexico border.

Mexican gangsters grow opium poppies in the Sierra Madre mountains and convert them into heroin known as Black Tar and Mexican Mud, which are smuggled over the Rio Grande.

Every year, the heroin trade provides billions of dollars to gangs such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas. Since 2006, cartel violence has claimed the lives of over 47,000 people in Mexico.

source

 

[rwtrwt]

This scares me. Why don't they just make a dopamine vaccine or remove our brain's entire reward system. While they are at it they should just create an emotion vaccine to remove "dangerous" emotions like love and hate and just make everyone apathetic all the time.

 

[dip12]

Yeah clever, ummm ok so when patients get cancer/heart disease etc etc and you need to give pain relief?? Only takes a few nightmare stories of unimaginable pain to cause a nice BLACK BOX warning "May block pain relief in medical settings" - which I would imagine would scare most people off.

...and oh you say they can use another opioid in these cases (e.g fentanyl) - then so can the drug dealers.

This is the almost exact parallel to criminalising addiction - BAN the drugs and no one will use them oh wait a sec...!

 

[ATLL765]

Man, I saw this headline scroll across the ticker on MSNBC this morning and I got excited thinking something groundbreaking had been done, but this isn't quite what I had imagined... I imagine this would at the very least make morphine completely ineffective as well.

 

[SM0K3Y]

Anyone get the feeling of huge spread of dope addicts with precipitated withdrawal coming? I sure do.

The difference between mice and humans is they are just addicted to the drug. Humans get addicted to the act of going to get the drug (your high starts when you get the money and get anxious going to the hood), humans get addicted to the rate of administration, humans get addicted to the smell, taste, feel. It may help take away the cravings, but just like tobacco smokers, there is no "Oh take this, it'll take away your cravings you'll be fine" - this is why smokers need to chew gum, bite pens, smoke e-cigs, chew on straws. It's all part of the addiction, not just the physical cravings....

 

[BananasAndOranges]

Ugh. Fucking hydromorphone implant, more options to those of us who do want to be clean. This is a stupid idea. I really dont get it.