Slashdot Mirror


New Nicotine Vaccine May Succeed Where Others Have Failed

Zothecula writes: If you're a smoker who's trying to quit, you may recall hearing about vaccines designed to cause the body's immune system to treat nicotine like a foreign invader, producing antibodies that trap and remove it before it's able to reach receptors in the brain. It's a fascinating idea, but according to scientists at California's Scripps Research Institute, a recent high-profile attempt had a major flaw. They claim to have overcome that problem (abstract), and are now developing a vaccine of their own that they believe should be more effective.

12 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Why would you want this? by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'd still be an addict, just one who could never satisfy his cravings. This sounds more like some sort of torture that an aid to quitting.

    1. Re:Why would you want this? by morcego · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The numbers on people who try to quit and fail are scary. The numbers of people who quit and start smoking again within the first 2 years are also telling.

      What I find even more strange is how many people I've known who knew full well that it was bad prior to even starting, and then started anyways. I've asked them why they did that, and the answers range from "it's so that you have something to do when you're with your friends" to "well I figured it would be good for me so long as I used a natural brand." (By natural, they mean those packs you can buy on the Indian reservations that are supposedly grown and made locally by the natives.)

      You are absolutely correct. Even when I started smoking (1991-92), it was already a stupid decision. I knew all the problems. In my case, I was depressed at the time, and maybe (not sure) in a self destructive mood. I knew how stupid I was acting, but did it anyway.

      It is scary how many people still make apologies for smoking, or say that this or that isn't "that bad" or "bad at all".

      --
      morcego
    2. Re:Why would you want this? by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >You will always be an addict. I quit smoking over 3 years ago, and I'm still addicted.

      No you won't. It just seems that way because it's only been 3 years. I broke my 1-2 pack a day addiction about 15 years ago, and have been at the point where I can have one or two without getting out of control for about a decade. I don't anymore, since smoking is disgusting and makes you reek.

    3. Re:Why would you want this? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People always know that drugs are bad for them. Do you think there is still one single heroin junkie who didn't know that heroin is going to kill them when they started taking it?

      People don't care about this when they start reaching for drugs. If we really wanted to prevent drug abuse we should first and foremost ask why people reach for them. It sure as hell ain't that they don't know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They know full well what they're doing. A friend of mine is working in Russia with addicts (as a nurse) and you don't even WANT to know what kind of shit they pump into their body. It literally rots them from the inside. And I mean literally. And they DO know that this WILL happen. Not that there is the danger, or there is a chance. They KNOW that it WILL happen and still they do it.

      If you want to fight drugs, start at the reason instead of the drug.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Why would you want this? by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You've never smoked in your life, have you? Or if you did, the doseage was so long and spaced out enough that it didn't wreck you personally. For many others out there it's a debilitating experience. It's why I've encouraged any of the people I know that want to quit to take up vaping as substitute. At least from there, they've got more control over the process and can step down gradually without taking the excessively barbaric cold-turkey approach.

      --
      The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
  2. Re:Required vaccine? by gatfirls · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your thought process is scary at a minimum. It does give some insight into how horrible ideas take root once you demonize something/someone though.

  3. Re:Is there something wrong with me that .,.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While were at it, we shouldn't support programs like weight watchers, or help people get started on exercise routines. Everyone should figure everything out for themselves without any outside aid whatsoever. Accepting help from other people or tools is a sign of weakness.

  4. Re:what the vaccine actually do? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, if you walked up to a smoker and vaccinated them like this ... they would still be addicted, and have no way of alleviating that.

    As an ex-smoker, had someone done that to me, I might have had to kill them

    Quitting smoking is hard, is sucks, and it takes months if not years for the craving to go away. The smallest thing can make you go back to wanting one.

    The ability to get nicotine from an alternate source than smoking is not something to be underestimated, and for many of us is the only way we can really quit.

    I rank this about as good as locking someone in a room and waiting for the screaming to stop. It's simply doing nothing at all about the fact that your brain and body are still going "where is it? how about now? can we have some? what about now? Why isn't there any? How do we get some? WHY can't we have any?"

    A smoker on forced cold turkey quitting is NOT a person you want to be around.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  5. Re:Required vaccine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How has that worked out for 'the war on drugs'?

    I personally do not smoke. I do not care for it. Either for or against. What I do care for is the hostile attitude most people take upon themselves to regulate others around them. I do not tolerate bullies. That is not freedom. That is being a jackass.

    The mental gymnastics some people will go thru to make it look like they 'are saving the world' is quite a sight to behold.

    Why not just admit the *real* reason. You do not like the smoke smell. So you will do/say *anything* to get it away from you. A smoker will usually be quite nice about it too. "dude can you put that out I do not like the smell". If they dont you just found another jackass (they are not hard to find). You enjoy the power trip it gives you that you control the actions of someone else.

  6. Re:Required vaccine? by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some of the most interesting new research in psychiatry is the positive effects of nicotine on sufferers of schizophrenia. It is one of the few thinghs that can treat the negative symptoms of the disease and it is the only one that has no nasty side effects (as long as the delivery mechanism isn't smoking).

    The vaccine sounds like a really bad idea.

  7. Denial by uolamer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances, but as far as the damage caused from just nicotine vs smoking a cigarette there is a vast difference. While amazingly addictive the effects of the drug are not too different than caffeine in some aspects. I believe the bogeyman reference was to how many people assume nicotine causes cancer and all the things that cigarettes cause, where people who have done a little research know that is the tar, smoke and other chemicals not the nicotine. I am not saying nicotine is good for people by any means, but there isn't much of a comparison between it and smoking is all.

    --
    s/©//g
  8. Re:Required vaccine? by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You clearly didn't understand what I said.

    People should be free to do what they want and we typically don't demonise them.
    UNTIL they do something which has an effect on others in society. e.g. DUI.

    If you want to drink yourself into misery, gamble away your life savings, and smoke yourself into a cancerous death then more power to you.

    Just don't affect the people around you. That's the problem most smokers don't seem to get. Just because you like smoking doesn't mean everyone else in the restaurant should be subjected to it. Much like DUI. If you like being in a drunken stupor do it where no one else is affected by it.

    I'm not focusing on a terrible smoker doing things I don't like. I'm focusing on a terrible smoker negatively affecting my health by being in their vicinity.