For over a decade, epidemic fentanyl addiction has been a mass casualty crisis, and a significant—if not primary—contributor to the rot of every major city in the country. If there exists a will among our political class to solve this problem (admittedly questionable), our local officials certainly haven’t found a way. Fortunately, there now exists a wild potential solution. Long story short? Scientists have developed a fentanyl vaccination. Next uncomfortable question: should addicts be asked, pressured, or even forced to take it?

For my part, the idea of children, or even healthy adults being asked, let alone pressured to undergo a new treatment strikes me as clearly unethical. But were a convicted drug offender offered a quick way out of prison in the form of a cure to his own addiction? That’s a different question, and I’m not sure I hate the notion.

Nick Russo guests for Pirate Wires with a piece on the new vaccine, the early whispers of strategic thinking surrounding administration of the drug, and the many fraught ethical questions at play.