Government injecting veterans with cocaine for drug addiction research
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are currently using tax dollars to inject cocaine into drug-addicted veterans. The subjects are being given injections as part of a study in which researchers hope to discover a medicine that will block cocaine absorption in the body. All the volunteers were recruited because they were already addicted to cocaine.
The VA handed over several similar abstract studies showing that veterans have been used as subjects over the past decade. Timothy O’Leary, the VA’s acting director of research and development, says his agency has been conducting abstract research over the past 25 years. Although he claims the veteran’s safety is most important, documents of a decade old study of morphine showed nearly 800 adverse affects ranging from anorexia to heart tremors.
According to the DEA, more than 6,000 licenses have been issued to scientists to use otherwise illegal drugs in experiments. O’Leary defended the study citing the need to help the estimated 140,000 vets suffering from drug addiction.
Critics say that experimenting on addicts conflicts with ethical guidelines concerning “informed consent”. This is because laboratory subjects must understand the risks of an experiment and say have the chance to say no, but since scientists recognize that addiction is a disease, addicted veterans can’t just say no.
Many people have begun to question the government about its drug experiments comparing this to the CIA’s former habit of testing drugs on unwilling volunteers. Cato Institute scholar Tim Lynch says “it is not clear to me why the government has to subsidize such research”. U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen said through a spokesman that he would be “closely reviewing the matter”. O’Leary was cited saying that the injections were given in “extremely controlled conditions” but when asked what he meant he responded by saying he wasn’t familiar with the labs.
Although our society suffers greatly from drug addiction and could use some sort of magic medicine that prevents drug effects it seems very unethical to subject people to this type of testing. It is hypocritical to take advantage of addicted veterans in an attempt to find a cure for them.
The VA handed over several similar abstract studies showing that veterans have been used as subjects over the past decade. Timothy O’Leary, the VA’s acting director of research and development, says his agency has been conducting abstract research over the past 25 years. Although he claims the veteran’s safety is most important, documents of a decade old study of morphine showed nearly 800 adverse affects ranging from anorexia to heart tremors.
According to the DEA, more than 6,000 licenses have been issued to scientists to use otherwise illegal drugs in experiments. O’Leary defended the study citing the need to help the estimated 140,000 vets suffering from drug addiction.
Critics say that experimenting on addicts conflicts with ethical guidelines concerning “informed consent”. This is because laboratory subjects must understand the risks of an experiment and say have the chance to say no, but since scientists recognize that addiction is a disease, addicted veterans can’t just say no.
Many people have begun to question the government about its drug experiments comparing this to the CIA’s former habit of testing drugs on unwilling volunteers. Cato Institute scholar Tim Lynch says “it is not clear to me why the government has to subsidize such research”. U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen said through a spokesman that he would be “closely reviewing the matter”. O’Leary was cited saying that the injections were given in “extremely controlled conditions” but when asked what he meant he responded by saying he wasn’t familiar with the labs.
Although our society suffers greatly from drug addiction and could use some sort of magic medicine that prevents drug effects it seems very unethical to subject people to this type of testing. It is hypocritical to take advantage of addicted veterans in an attempt to find a cure for them.
posted by Riley White at 2:48 PM
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