A wacko, nanny-state British government commission is suggesting that kids should be innoculated against the euphoria caused by heroin, cocaine and tobacco, according to the Independent. No word yet on whether this scheme, so devious and invasive that even Orwell or Huxley would have been hard-pressed to cook it up, will also be able to mitigate the good feelings caused by family gatherings, stuffed animals, bangers and mash, or Becks and Posh.

Under the plans, doctors would immunise children at risk of becoming smokers or drug users with an injection. The scheme could operate in a similar way to the current nationwide measles, mumps and rubella vaccination programme.

Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take. Such vaccinations are being developed by pharmaceutical companies and are due to hit the market within two years.

The aptly named David Nutt, "a leading government drugs adviser," is also quoted in the Independent story. Whole article is here.

Radley Balko at The Agitator, easily one of the web's best destinations, puts it all into perspective:

I'm pretty much speechless. Government forcibly injecting you to "protect" you from euphoria? If it hadn't come from a major newspaper, you'd think this were a nutso conspiracy theory.

At the same time, Anna Maxted, writing in the Evening Standard, suggests an alternative policy to reduce the harms associated with prohibition and drug abuse:

But I believe cocaine should be decriminalised in the same way that cannabis has, so that police can turn a blind eye to possession. It is ludicrous that the police are forced to treat casual users as lawbreakers, (along with the mountains of paperwork and the enormous waste of public money this entails.) If cocaine was legal, the police and the justice system would be freed up to tackle the true problems threatening society. Not to mention that there would be better counselling and perhaps better treatment for the minority who do suffer from addiction.

Read the Evening Standard article here, and readers' reactions to the decrim idea here.