Alcohol substitute that avoids drunkenness and hangovers in development – Telegraph – “An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists. The new substance could have the added bonus of being “switched off” instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work. The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.”
Sounds all well and good, but, as a rule I’m skeptical of pharmaceuticals. I can just imagine something like this becoming the norm, and then ten years down the road we find out it causes some yet-unheard-of form of bodily damage. (Vioxx, anyone?)
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Buzzed but not drunk. Who gets to draw the line?
Entertaining thing about this… Which I didn’t notice upon first reading, the lab that is looking into doing this is Professor David Nutt of that whole drug-committee-firing debacle. The worst part about that whole thing was the press attacking his son. In any case, I think, based on his opinions he’s probably a pro-freedom kind of guy, so I doubt he’s suggesting the “alcohol substitute” on the basis of lets-get-rid-of-booze-altogether. But then again, you never know, some people have strange double standards.