Posted by Quintal on February 3, 2007, at 12:37:12
In reply to Re: Anti-drug jabs given at birth, posted by Meri-Tuuli on February 3, 2007, at 12:13:31
>But Q, m'dear, this is coming from the Sun -- not really know for its journalistic accuracy, but more known for its Page three girls! :o)
I know ;-), I saw it in my dad's paper yesterday and looked it up online. It's almost funny, but I've heard this before elsewhere and some of the proles seem to be quite enthusiastic about the idea. Maybe if it's slowly drip fed to them they'll one day accept it? I'm sure there'll be grieving parents of young drug casualties like Leah Betts wheeled out to wring their hands - "How can we possibly let the societal cancer that is drug addiction claim more innocent lives when we have the means to cure it...........etc., etc., etc.,........"
I wonder if it's actually true? Operations are already taking place in some parts of the world to destroy the part of the addict's brain involved in pleasure and reward so they feel no benefit from drugs of abuse.
I wrote a response in the Sun's 'Have your say' discussion column with a correction on the naltrexone issue :-). Why can't they check basic facts like this before going to print?:
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What would happen to these children if they ever develop a medical need for opiates - to control severe pain for example? Will they have no choice but to suffer? Likewise for cocaine and its analogues that are used as local anaesthetics. The endogenous opiate system is also implicated in mood; if the vaccine affects the brain's own endorphins there may be a risk of some people developing intractable depression as a side effect.
This is wrong. Thank goodness the British Medical Council has objected.
Drug addiction is first and foremost a personal problem with secondary ramifications for society at large. It is not a biomedical problem requiring prophylactic treatment, and I would refuse to submit my children for this reason.
The reference to naltrexone rankled somewhat; it does not ease Heroin withdrawal. It actually precipitates withdrawal symptoms in addicts because it prevents the Heroin binding to opiate receptors. Naltrexone is used to prevent relapse in the 'recovered' addict for this reason as the person cannot get 'high' from the opiate while naltrexone is bound to its site of action.
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Q
poster:Quintal
thread:729315
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070201/msgs/729331.html