# It may be possible to vaccinate people against addictive drugs



## perennialurker (Oct 1, 2009)

In a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Kim Janda and his colleagues suggest how a vaccine against methamphetamine, a popular street drug, might be made. If their method works, it would open the possibility of vaccinating people against other drugs, too. 

For more details, take a look at the original article: Combating addiction: Can a vaccine stop drug abuse? | The Economist

More hope that tired, seemingly intractable social and political debates will be solved by science.


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## Simply Created (May 22, 2011)

That's just silly. There are enough vaccinations that are out there.

Would this be another vaccination that would be given to small children?
Or maybe when someone is older and they'll say to themselves, "I'm tempted to take this drug, maybe I should go get the vaccination."
Or a parent saying to their child's pediatrician, "Yeah, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to teach my child that drugs are bad. Could you vaccinate him please..."

I mean, its


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## Simply Created (May 22, 2011)

cool that they can create vaccinations like that but, why?


(Sorry for the split, was using the mobile app and hit the submit button too soon.)


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## progBOT (May 4, 2011)

Drugs are bad, so let us inject you with this, mmmk.


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## MachinegunDojo (Dec 27, 2009)

hrm, never tried meth before, maybe I will now... hehe, j\k.

Though imagine if you could not only prevent addiction but other harmful effects as well _and_ for multiple substances?


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## Intricate Mystic (Apr 3, 2010)

If they could make working vaccines for the drugs with the worst impact on addicts and society at large, this would be great. I'm sure people will always find a way to get high on _something_, though, so I expect that even with vaccines there will still be people who are addicted to something. Humans have historically been quite creative in their quest to find substances to help them escape reality.


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## benfoldsfive dude (Nov 24, 2009)

progBOT said:


> Drugs are bad, so let us inject you with this, mmmk.


Yeah, seriously.


Coming from a sibling who was a former drug addict, it's not a great idea if you give drugs to someone in order to make them stop their habit, as it will probably become another "high." 

One, the fact that a group of people think that using drugs to stop a drug addiction is stupid and entirely a paradox. Two, if someone is willing to stop using drugs, he or she would get help and join a support group like Narcotics Anonymous.

Coming up with short-term solutions like the vaccination for drug users shows how pharmaceuticals are interested in gaining a quick profit rather than people like psychologists and psychiatrists, who take the time to listen and help the addict resolve emotional problems in a less destructive way. Their solution also shows how our society's thought process (at least in America) has become "If I take a pill, all of my problems will go away" and how we want pharmaceuticals to produce these quick/fast-resolving miracle pills. Whatever happened to acknowledging your problem, getting advice or help, and learning how to cope?


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## 497882 (Nov 6, 2017)

perennialurker said:


> In a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Kim Janda and his colleagues suggest how a vaccine against methamphetamine, a popular street drug, might be made. If their method works, it would open the possibility of vaccinating people against other drugs, too.
> 
> For more details, take a look at the original article: Combating addiction: Can a vaccine stop drug abuse? | The Economist
> 
> More hope that tired, seemingly intractable social and political debates will be solved by science.


Wait how? Meth is the drug. What are they vaccinating against? The side effects? Since if that's the case just don't do METH.


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## Cephalonimbus (Dec 6, 2010)

The article is behind a paywall but it appears they've created a "vaccine" that prevents certain drugs from having active effects by changing our metabolism.

Obvious risks of such a vaccine aside, I think this is missing the whole point of what addiction is about. People often make this mistake, to see addiction in purely physiological terms: you take an addicting drug, you become addicted, and this is essentially just biochemistry. Well I have some personal experience and have dealt with a lot of people who went though addiction, and the common denominator I see is that people are trying to self-medicate because their feelings are overwhelming them. I think the physical aspect of addiction is grossly overstated; the real issue is an underlying crisis that causes a need to numb the pain in the first place. Take heroin for example, or other opiates like fentanyl for that matter. These are substances known to have particularly nasty physical withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, people get really ill for a while when they quit heroin. So then why do so many of them relapse _after_ having gone through withdrawal, only to then quit again and relapse and quit and relapse, so they go through the withdrawal process dozens of times? It's because the physical withdrawal isn't actually the real battle. The wall they keep hitting is learning to be sober, to deal with life without constantly numbing the pain but instead processing the traumas that cause that pain instead f running from them. The problem is not primarily physiological, but emotional, spiritual and existential.


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## 497882 (Nov 6, 2017)

Cephalonimbus said:


> The article is behind a paywall but it appears they've created a "vaccine" that prevents certain drugs from having active effects by changing our metabolism.
> 
> Obvious risks of such a vaccine aside, I think this is missing the whole point of what addiction is about. People often make this mistake, to see addiction in purely physiological terms: you take an addicting drug, you become addicted, and this is essentially just biochemistry. Well I have some personal experience and have dealt with a lot of people who went though addiction, and the common denominator I see is that people are trying to self-medicate because their feelings are overwhelming them. I think the physical aspect of addiction is grossly overstated; the real issue is an underlying crisis that causes a need to numb the pain in the first place. Take heroin for example, or other opiates like fentanyl for that matter. These are substances known to have particularly nasty physical withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, people get really ill for a while when they quit heroin. So then why do so many of them relapse _after_ having gone through withdrawal, only to then quit again and relapse and quit and relapse, so they go through the withdrawal process dozens of times? It's because the physical withdrawal isn't actually the real battle. The wall they keep hitting is learning to be sober, to deal with life without constantly numbing the pain but instead processing the traumas that cause that pain instead f running from them. The problem is not primarily physiological, but emotional, spiritual and existential.


 So people want to get high without consequences? If it's to try and cure them by making the drugs not work since that will make the drug addicts not want drugs anymore that's the worst idea ever. You ever see an addict when thier drugs are not working? They take more. Thats why you see chain smokers who are smoking packs a day. Since thier body got use to it. This applys to over the counter medication as well. The whole premise is stupid. You can't cure an addict by giving them different DRUGS. If say one shot of vodka gets me a good start but than you give me a shot that makes it not work what do you think the instinct is? Oh maybe more vodka. That's bad in so many ways.


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## Mark R (Dec 23, 2015)

Cephalonimbus said:


> The article is behind a paywall but it appears they've created a "vaccine" that prevents certain drugs from having active effects by changing our metabolism.
> 
> Obvious risks of such a vaccine aside, I think this is missing the whole point of what addiction is about. People often make this mistake, to see addiction in purely physiological terms: you take an addicting drug, you become addicted, and this is essentially just biochemistry. Well I have some personal experience and have dealt with a lot of people who went though addiction, and the common denominator I see is that people are trying to self-medicate because their feelings are overwhelming them. I think the physical aspect of addiction is grossly overstated; the real issue is an underlying crisis that causes a need to numb the pain in the first place. Take heroin for example, or other opiates like fentanyl for that matter. These are substances known to have particularly nasty physical withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, people get really ill for a while when they quit heroin. So then why do so many of them relapse _after_ having gone through withdrawal, only to then quit again and relapse and quit and relapse, so they go through the withdrawal process dozens of times? It's because the physical withdrawal isn't actually the real battle. The wall they keep hitting is learning to be sober, to deal with life without constantly numbing the pain but instead processing the traumas that cause that pain instead f running from them. The problem is not primarily physiological, but emotional, spiritual and existential.


Maybe these overwhelming feelings have a physiological root? Last time I checked, processing the traumas that cause emotional pain as a means to end addiction has a pretty low success rate.

I've lost 100 lbs and kept it off using an opiate blocker (naltrexone) in offlabel use.


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