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What if a pill could end crime?WASHINGTON - The genetic revolution made possible by mapping the human genome may include new cures for drug addiction, restoring health to the mentally ill and, perhaps, one day replacing prisons with pills, experts say. . . . "Some physicians already regard criminality as a disease," Dr. McGuffin said. Treating crime with pills "is a possibility" if researchers can find a genetic basis for some of the human impulses that underlie some crimes, he said. Off the record, Dr. McGuffin continued: "Unfortunately, such pills would be controlled substances, otherwise known as drugs, and thus be illegal without a prescription. Given the strong likelihood that the effect of these pills might include a highly euphoric effect, we'd ironically enough, have created something new to get addicted to, resulting in a new breed of criminal seeking ways to obtain these pills; then we'll be in a very bad situation because we'll have to decide whether to cure their criminality with the very pill they became crooked to obtain or punish them by keeping them in an undrugged, 'criminal-ed' state by withholding the medicine. In such a case, have we rehabilitated them or exacerbated the problem? Or do you treat the addiction to the pills, which caused the criminal behavior in the first place, with a pill developed to cure addictions to pills? As you can see, genome research is freighted with such difficulties. We need to think more about possible unanticipated consequences, or at least, someone should do that--I'm too busy. Aside from that, a number of people believe we've failed unless we keep a significant portion of our minority population jailed. This country has worked hard to build the largest population of incarcerated people in the world; it's a matter of pride: we must keep those cells filled I'm afraid. . . Quite the conundrum, eh? What? Yes, my name really is McGuffin and I've heard every Hitchcock joke ever imagined, so put a cork in it, bud." 
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