Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jul 2001
Source: Daily Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2001 ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dailyreview-ang.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1410
Author: Josh Indar

EX-DRUG CZAR TOUTS DRUGS TO AID ADDICTS

HAYWARD- The war against drugs is fought from the jungles of Colombia to 
the streets of the inner city. Now, one drug warrior wants to redraw the 
battle lines, using doctors and nurses as front-line troops.

Former White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey (ret.) announced this 
week that he has joined the board of directors of a Hayward pharmaceutical 
company that focuses exclusively on developing drugs to treat addicts.

McCaffrey said his membership on the board of DrugAbuse Sciences Inc., a 
privately held company that recently moved to Hayward, will allow him to 
continue to work on new solutions to the country's drug problem.

"I do have a tremendous sense of pride in joining DrugAbuse Sciences," 
McCaffrey said. "I obviously looked at them very closely because I want to 
continue to support an emphasis on rational, science-based approaches to 
treating addiction."

McCaffrey was appointed to the White House's National Office of Drug 
Control Policy by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996. He resigned the post 
in January, but said he still has an interest in finding solutions to what 
he referred to as "the single most pressing health problem" in America.

"When you pick up any American problem, at the heart and soul of it, or at 
least a major factor in it, is going to be abuse of drugs and alcohol," he 
said.

DrugAbuse Sciences CEO Elizabeth Greetham said McCaffrey's membership on 
the board will raise the profile of the company and give it a louder voice 
in federal regulation and funding issues. But more importantly, she said, 
McCaffrey's presence gives credence to the idea that addiction is a disease 
that can be cured through medical treatment.

"To have someone with his knowledge, his stature -- it's a huge 
endorsement, just to let people know there's a need for a company like ours 
that offers treatment (for addicts)," Greetham said.

The company has one drug on the market and several others in various stages 
of development. Its initial product, a drug called Zeeblok (naltrexone 
hydrochloride tablets), blocks receptors in the brain that trigger the 
release of the chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a naturally occurring brain 
chemical that causes the euphoric feelings associated with both alcohol and 
heroin use.

By blocking the receptors that trigger a dopamine release, the drug makes 
it impossible for users to get high from heroin or alcohol. Greetham said a 
double-blind study of the drug showed a 60 percent reduction in relapse 
rates among the subjects who took it.

The company is now working on a different version of the drug that 
recovering addicts will have to take only once a month, instead of the 
daily tablet dosage that Zeeblok requires.

Also in development are "antidote" drugs that neutralize the effects of 
cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as experimental drugs that work in the 
frontal cortex of the brain, which stores what neurologists call "working 
memory." If this memory can be recoded, Greetham said, chronic users might 
begin to place less importance on the feeling of being high.

Drugs that dilute or block the effect of other drugs have been in use for 
at least 30 years. Methadone, for instance, has been used since the early 
1970s to suppress addicts' cravings for heroin. Studies show that the drug 
works, but is really effective only when used in a structured program that 
includes counseling, peer support and life management-type services.

Judith Cohen, Ph.D., director of Hayward's East Bay Recovery Project, said 
some forms of naltrexone have been on the market for quite a while, but 
they have gained limited success due to their side effects.

"It has nasty interactions with other drugs," she said, describing a bad 
reaction as being "like a heroin withdrawal, only worse.

"No addict in their right mind wants that kind of stuff. It's very 
unpopular," she said.

But McCaffrey said advances in pharmaceuticals used to treat addicts could 
one day provide the missing piece of the drug war puzzle, a problem the 
United States now spends about $20 billion a year trying to solve.

"I don't think this is a treatment problem or a law enforcement problem or 
an education problem," he said. "In my view, it's always simplistic to say 
either one is the (sole) problem."

McCaffrey said legal solutions are slow to materialize because there is a 
stigma attached to drug abuse issues that prevents a rational debate among 
legislators. But he, Greetham and other experts agreed that a change in 
tactics, and in attitudes, toward the nation's drug war is probably inevitable.

"I think the whole climate is changing," Greetham said, citing a 
proliferation of news articles on biological treatments of addiction, as 
well as the success of the movie "Traffic," which documents different 
aspects of the drug trade.

"It's important to get this across," she said, "that (addiction) is a 
closet disease that can be treated."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom