News of the Day 8-23-06

A couple of meth stories today. University of NE researchers may have come up with a vaccine patch to help addicts get off the stuff. The work plays off research into a nicotine vaccine. Meanwhile, if you can't get clean, you may find your name on a "meth registry" for landlords, bosses, snoopy neighbors, whomever to peruse, like sex offender registries. The potential for every offense to eventually have a registry seems to be growing, but would that minimize the clout of individual ones? Is there a time anymore when "do the crime, do the time . . . and only the time" applies, or will folks permanently carry the penalties? Also, the meth registry idea usually omits offender addresses, unlike sex offender registries. Doesn't this seem a little inconsistent if the intended purposes are the same? Or are the purposes really the same? Clearly an option we'll hear more about in more states in the near future.