Researchers Patent Heroin Vaccine

It's effective in lab mice, but will it help battle one of the most addictive drugs on the planet in humans?

Scientists in Mexico have patented a vaccine that (in lab mice, at least) makes patients unable to feel the effects of heroin. The vaccine, which could soon be tested on humans, works by introducing antibodies that can track down molecules of injected or smoked heroin and latches on to them before they can get to the nervous system's opioid receptors, which when activated give heroin users a high. In the trials, the lab mice were given heroin for a period of time, after which some of the mice were given the vaccine, and others weren't. The mice that did get the vaccine were far less likely to attempt to ingest the heroin than their non-vaccinated companions. Granted, this vaccine is still a long ways away from being available to humans, and other researchers have questioned whether the vaccine would also work against other, less addictive opioids that are used for pain relief, such as oxycodone, demerol and morphine.