Vaccines May Not Be For Diseases Anymore.

According to a New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/health/04vaccine.html?_r=3&ref=health) a vaccine against addictions may soon be a real thing. The idea of such a vaccine would bring hopes to millions. These vaccines would work like a regular vaccine. The vaccine would cause the immune system to create antibodies against the addicting substance. However this vaccine doesn't stop addictions and can only be administered after someone has had an addiction.While many test have been proven successful in animals but the results are inconsistent in humans. The FDA has not approved any of these vaccines because of the inconclusive results in humans. Also these vaccines are hardly perfect. A vaccine has not been created for every addiction. So far alcohol and marijuana vaccines have failed.  This could be because the molecules within alcohol and marijuana are very small and can hide very easily in the body. Another major problem would be just because you got one vaccine for an addiction doesn't mean that you won't suffer another, potentially worse addiction.
       
While this type of vaccine has not been perfected yet it gives me a lot of hope for the future. My dad had a very serious addiction with alcohol which ended up costing him his life. The fact that people are working on a creating a vaccine to stop these addictions from happening lets me believe that other children in the future won't have to suffer the pain of losing a parent because of an addiction. This type of vaccine could also help crime rates. If a criminal was found to have an addiction to an illegal substance he could be treated for and then have the chance to lead a better life without needing to get high.