Anti-Abuse Vaccine Is the Wrong Approach

On first reading, I thought that “Vaccine to Fight Drug Addiction Is Needed” (March 1) was a Swiftian exercise. But then I realized that satire never appears on the Business pages of The Times.

The assumption that desire for euphoria is a disease--that is, an unnatural state--makes for an egregiously false foundation on which to build an argument. For the overwhelming evidence that such a desire (yea, need) is innate rather than abnormal in higher animals, you should read “Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise,” by Ronald K. Siegel, a Ph.D. in psychopharmacology at UCLA. He concludes by urging that the government get behind a program to develop a safe euphoria-inducing drug--one that is neither addictive nor physically harmful--to replace those being used or abused by some 40 million Americans.

It is a proposal infinitely more realistic and humane than your massively intrusive approach that reminds one of a marriage between “1984” and “Clockwork Orange.”

C. J. WRIGHT

Venice