Plan would vaccinate babies against drugs

Plan would vaccinate
babies against drugs
Brain-altering chemicals could prevent
addiction to cocaine, heroin, tobacco

Babies could be vaccinated with brain-altering chemicals to stop them getting hooked on drugs and cigarettes in later life.

Newborns would have jabs which could prevent addiction to cocaine, heroin or tobacco, under secret Downing Street plans.

Details of the extraordinary proposal to stop the annual £20 billion cost of drug misuse are in a leaked No 10 policy document.

Scientists have already developed a drug called naltrexone that eases heroin withdrawal symptoms. A cocaine vaccine called TA-CD has now been developed, the document says.

Ministers could also crack down on drug dens by having the post scanned for supplies using modern technology, while police helicopters would use revolutionary laser radar systems to test the air for chemicals used to make drugs.

The document, reportedly being considered by Tony Blair's working group on crime, talks of "immunotherapies" developed in secret to protect a generation.

It says: "A young person could be immunised and the drugs would never reach or affect the brain. Drug-related crimes could be reduced if vaccines can be successfully developed to reduce the craving."

Health ministers and the General Medical Council have already objected.

Figures last year from the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drugs Addiction revealed Britain is in the top three EU nations for the number of cocaine users. Statistics also show nine per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds smoke.