SCIENTISTS are giving cocaine to genetically modified fruit flies to combat a crippling illness that effect nearly 50 million Americans.

Researchers are using Drosophila flies, a species that has a lot in common with people, sharing around 75% of the genes that cause disease in humans.

The flies react to cocaine remarkably similar to humans, according to Adrian Rothenfluh, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah .

"At low doses, they start running around, just like people," he told the university.

"At very high doses, they get incapacitated, which is also true in people."

Because fruit flies grow quickly and are easy to use in genetic experiments, a fruit fly model of cocaine addiction could be used as an early step toward developing therapies.

However, th

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