(PRWEB) October 2, 2004 -- The bell rings and Bobby rushes outside to meet his friends in the field behind the school. When he gets there some older boys are smoking. One of them smiles at Bobby and hands him a cigarette. "Wanna drag?" he asks. At 13, Bobby has never smoked before. Not wanting to look like a geek, he takes the cigarette. He inhales, sputters and coughs. The smoke burns his throat and makes his eyes water. He tries again. He doesn't cough, but the cigarette tastes horrible.
Over time, other children become addicted but not Bobby. When he was younger, his parents vaccinated him against nicotine as part of a government-sanctioned program. He can't feel nicotine's pleasurable effects, so doesn't get addicted to cigarettes.
Far-fetched? Not at all. Successful trials with nicotine and cocaine-specific vaccines could make Bobby's story a reality soon. And it was widely reported this summer that the British government could soon be considering a program to vaccinate children against addiction to nicotine, cocaine and other drugs. So the technology and political interest are there.
But while the allure of using neuropharmacological treatments, such as drug-specific vaccines, as weapons in the ongoing war on drugs might be hard to resist, many scientists and ethicists believe that such government-mandated inoculation could cause more harm than good.
In an exclusive Betterhumans report, Shannon Klie looks at new anti-addiction vaccines and the ethical challenge they pose. Before these vaccines become available for public consumption, governments and policymakers will need to develop strategies and ethical guidelines to determine how to use them. The benefits of healthcare and law-enforcement savings, as well as gaining political points with some of the electorate, could motivate many governments to proceed. But many critics say that this would be a mistake, and would in effect be a program of forced cognitive modification.
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