BREAKING NEWS

Mexican researchers patent heroin vaccine

MEXICO CITY - While Mexico grapples with relentless drug-related violence, a group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.
Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.
The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it.
"It would be a vaccine for people who are serious addicts, who have not had success with other treatments and decide to use this application to get away from drugs," the institute's director Maria Elena Medina said Thursday.
Scientists worldwide have been searching for drug addiction vaccines for several years, but none have yet been fully developed and released on the market.