A vaccine with no legitimate medical use might give anyone pause, which is good, because a pause is exactly what is needed with the latest anti-drug scheme, an unprecedented, 1984-esque vaccination against drug-induced pleasure. Pharmaceutical corporations are currently developing 'vaccines' that prevent 'euphoria' from drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and nicotine, and a government-convened panel of scientists in the UK is considering 'a radical scheme:' the vaccination of children against such euphoria. Though these scientists stress the vaccine will be used only on children that are 'at risk' for drug abuse, they did not specify what criteria will be used to determine such a fundamentally arbitrary designation.

Vaccines work on the principal that the diseases they prevent are patently undesirable: no one in their right mind would actually want to contract polio, meningitis, or tetanus. Moreover, vaccines are mainly used against contagious diseases whose spread could be significantly checked by wholesale vaccination. The logic of vaccination is simply to keep everyone safe from something that nobody wants. Anti-drug vaccination, however, differs from this very legitimate medical practice in several crucial ways. First of all, some people, even knowing the risks involved, might want to experience the euphoria that addictive drugs can provide. The undesirability of recreational drugs effects, then, cannot be assumed for the vaccine's recipient. Moreover, these recreational drugs act on the very same neurological mechanisms that regulate natural feelings of euphoria, meaning that anti-drug vaccines may easily remove a person's capability to experience any kind of high, drug-induced or otherwise. The alterations made to the brain by such vaccines would be irreversible, posing a serious threat against the recipient's individual freedoms and mental health. Additionally, heroin belongs to the opiate family, which is used for legitimate pain-relief purposes. A vaccine that blocks the effects of heroin may also block the effects of prescribed pain-killers, providing doctors and patients with fewer resources in the fight against pain.