A Cocaine Vaccine?
October 6, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Addiction
Researchers are working on a vaccine to prevent cocaine addiction and they’re making progress. Is this a good thing or a waste of time and resources?
Between two and three million people in the United States are addicted to cocaine and about one-third of drug-related emergency room visits are the result of cocaine use.
Treating cocaine addiction is not easy. There aren’t any medicines that can help overcome the addiction; detoxification is the mainstay treatment. If a vaccine was available, researchers feel they could reach more than the approximately 800,000 addicts who receive treatment now.
The hope of researchers is that a cocaine …read more
