A Vaccine to Curb Addicts’ Highs

KEITH HUMPHREYS
Wall Street Journal
November 24, 2012

I met Shirelle as she entered treatment for cocaine addiction at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s. An ancient-looking African-American woman who was in fact in her late 30s, she met my gaze with a look that I had seen all over the blighted neighborhoods of Detroit: a disturbing combination of twitchy facial movements and inert, vacant eyes. Feeling ashamed and suicidal about how her addiction was destroying her family, she had entered treatment—out of desperation, not with any confidence that it would help her.

Shirelle had already been through rehab, counseling and 12-step meetings, to no avail. She spoke slowly because her lips were badly burned from her crack pipe, but her direct question was easily understood: “Isn’t there anything else?” “Not really,” I responded.

As an expert in addiction treatment, what depresses me is that a quarter-century later, I would still have to give her the same answer. But another possibility is now on the horizon: a vaccine for addiction to cocaine and other stimulant drugs.

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This article was posted: Saturday, November 24, 2012 at 2:24 pm

Tags: domestic news, science, vaccines

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