Heroin vaccine won't 'cure' what ails addicts
Sunday, April 15, 2012 - 08:00
in Health & Medicine
Even if it proves effective, it can't cure the underlying factors that make people prone to drug use, including poverty, violence and lack of opportunity.My aunt Marion is in the hospital dying of liver and kidney failure, the result of her 20-year struggle with heroin use. I was told of her imminent death the same day news broke about a vaccine against the drug. "Breakthrough heroin vaccine could render drug 'useless' in addicts," one headline read. "Scientists create vaccine against heroin high," proclaimed another.