http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3825177.stm The Beeb's got a story about a virus that reduces the effects of cocaine in rats, being better at getting appropriate proteins to appropriate parts of the brain. The news story talks about the potential for use in treatment (says it's way too early to tell, and says that addictive behaviours are psychologically complex so they can't predict if addicts would just switch to other drugs if the virus makes coke not work for them, but that's the kind of thing people in the treatment biz say), but the parts of the story that talk about what the virus actually does talk about reduction in the direct effects of cocaine on rat behaviour, not the effects on withdrawal. Meanwhile, Dept of Homeland Security is pricing syringes... ---- Bill Stewart bill.stewart@pobox.com