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Cocaine vaccine




Ok, I'm no music pundit, but this is one of the best Clapton songs - EVER! After you finish watching the SIX and a half minute live version above (including what seems to be a five minute guitar solo), you may proceed with the rest of this post hehe....

So, a vaccine against cocaine. Hmmmm... It is currently in clinical trials right now and researchers have asked the Food and Drug Administration permission to perform a larger trial to continue its progress to possible clinical use. The theory is similar to other vaccines - researchers place an inactive cocaine molecule on a protein so that the body can form antibodies against cocaine. So, when cocaine is ingested, the antibodies gobble them up so they cannot reach the brain for their addictive effect. (AP)

[FDA] Approval would mark a breakthrough in the treatment of cocaine addiction, which now mostly involves psychiatric counseling and 12-step programs. It presumably would be the final clinical hurdle before the vaccine — more than a decade in the making — might be approved for treatment. But one expert warns against expecting too much.

"Addiction vaccines are a promising advance, but it's unlikely any treatment in this field will work for everyone," said Dr. David Gorelick, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Still, if they prove successful, they will give those working in drug addiction an important option."

Who knows, this vaccine may not go anywhere. Certainly, it is years before there's even a possibility that it could be used as any kind of treatment in the real world. However, it is an intriguing possibility that one day, someone in a voluntary cocaine treatment program would be receiving a shot - and hopefully increase the change of sobriety. Fascinating....