Brit boffin brews INSTANT HANGOVER RELIEF Professor David Nutt, a boffin who has advised the UK government on drugs policy and now holds the Edmond J Safra chair in Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, is brewing a new drug that will replicate the sensations produced by alcohol but also be instantly reversible and not produce hangovers. Speaking to the …
Well, sales of kebabs should only be effected if people are forced to take the antidote before leaving the pub. That would be disastrous for the trade, as nobody eats them sober.
However bacon sandwiches will be totally unaffected, BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY TOTALLY DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! Even vegetarians know this, and it's why they fear their weakness.
Perhaps Professor Nutt ought to be concentrating on a chemical which gives all the pleasure of bacon-y yumminess - without the unfortunate side-effects of addiction and heart trouble. If his chemical could also replicate the nice cuppa that goes with the sandwich, then all the better.
Then I'd wake up every morning, reach for my bedside table glass of water and bacon-sarnie-and-cuppa pill, and be set up for the day.
Meh. Hangovers and drunk sick are healthy responses that go a long way in teaching you how not to kill yourself with alcohol poisoning. Sure, the occasional hangover is pretty much guaranteed, but remembering how shitty it was last time and not drinking so much this time is a big part of learning how to drink properly. I think hangovers are valuable.
Young people only have (relatively) mild hangovers, but the older we get the worse the hangovers are. Any educational value of hangovers would surely be improved if the situation was reversed.
Besides, we are talking about no longer getting any alcohol poisoning whatsoever with these new drugs.
"... no longer getting any alcohol poisoning whatsoever..."
Correct, so this can be something unique. However, even if his statements and claims are 100% truthful about his new found affect, becoming drunk is a gradual decay that can be managed. So for full blown alch's, this might be very good news, but for those of us that like the gradual decay of perception...well let's just say I don't see how going from 0 -> drunk is a great new curve to the appreciation of drinking.
That being said, what if I took 100 of these pills at once? Could I experience something that was once impossible due to poisoning? If your really think about it, there might be a new horizon of reality if you "overdose" on such a thing.
P.S. I PROMISE I posted this drunk...I'm fuck'n wrecked. Great FIRST article to read right now...GREAT!
"Young people only have (relatively) mild hangovers, but the older we get the worse the hangovers are".
Very probably true - provided the same amount of the same drink is taken. In my case, however, the amounts I consumed when young were very considerably greater than I would ever tackle nowadays. So my hangovers as a young man were much worse.
Someone who, given those circumstances, is unable to drink less as the years go by is in a truly wretched situation.
"Sure, the occasional hangover is pretty much guaranteed,..."
Bleh. Try hydrating when drinking. The majority of hangover symptoms are due to dehydration.
Dehydration is a bigger deal with alcohol, as it dilutes alcohol and its metabolites, as well as provides the proper isotonic balance for your body.
While the body may tolerate some degree of dehydration normally, alcohol, like many other toxic substances, which intoxicating substances are by nature in larger does, exacerbates the problem and hence, symptoms.
Lite beer is not real beer
Budweiser is not real beer
Alchohol free beer is not real beer
Real Ale is real beer. The clue is in the name.
Now can we have a proper pint glass with dimples and a handle icon please? (Or a tankard would also do). --->
(Obviously someone drinks those other things. I don't quite understand why, but each to their own)
Of course alcohol free beer is not real beer; it's the stuff you drink when you don't want alcohol but still want something cold that's vaguely beer-flavored instead of cola-flavored.
And Budweiser isn't made for a UK climate. If you're in the US Midwest, where the stuff is made, and a summer day is 95F outside (35C or so), and 95% humidity, and you've been out mowing the grass or doing other hot work, when you come inside you're not going to drink Real Ale. You want something much lighter and colder than that, and a very cold Budweiser is absolutely perfect, followed by another very cold Budweiser.
Here in San Francisco? Real Ale is just the right thing.
Hmm, I cannot really see what market he is trying to tap here, as getting drunk without beer sounds worse that getting a hangover from low-alcohol beers (yes, I do get them!) without having the buzz.
The only two places it might be of use would be in-patient alcoholics and perhaps to keep astronauts happy up in the space station.
On the other hand, if you get the beer goggles effect without the trouser issues, I can see a use if one's partner is a minger...
"Getting drunk without beer" is called "smoking a joint". Sometimes that's what you want, or you might want something else in that space that's a bit more controllable.
Dr. Nutt is trying to do social engineering on UK drugs policy. He's the guy who got fired from his job as medical advisor on drugs policy for saying that drugs policy ought to be guided by science and medicine rather than by the political correctness of the drug prohibition police. And good for him.
It will be up to the government to decide if this substance is allowed to be sold to the public. The drinks industry is very wealthy and gives money to the government and also pays lots of taxes and excise duty to the government. Hence, the government will not allow this 'alcohol replacement' to be sold.
"Hence, the government will not allow this 'alcohol replacement' to be sold."
Unless the drink industry starts selling it. Their current product has a design flaw: hangovers. Hangover-free booze? There's a market for that, and there's an existing, mammoth industry able to produce and distribute Booze II. Or Synthahol? Wonder Beer?
I once saw 2 brain slices side by side.
Heroin addict Vs alcoholic.
Heroin addicts brain looks normal.
Alcoholic's has holes in it where the brain cells were killed. IE sponge.
Yet one is a class A drug and the other has a legally sanctioned network of govt approved taxed dealers.
Yes,
Which drugs are legal and which are not and the whole illegal drugs classification thing has bugger all correlation to.
a) How addictive the drug is
or
b) How dangerous the drug is.
Note that even 'How dangerous the drug is.' is a misleading statement as it give zero idea as to dosage or other activities performed while taking the drug.
Boffin Nutt was sacked for trying to explain this to a government in thrall to the Daily Mail.
No, he was sacked for failing to understand that the deal with being a government advisor is that you're not allowed to do political campaigning at the same time. He thought "advisor" meant "commander" and then went whinging across the media when the government didn't do what he told them.
Its not JUST how addictive a drug is, but how addictive your personality is, some people can't give up smoking.. Some can't give up drinking...
But others can easily take it or leave it, don't suggest everyone who drinks the odd drink is as bad as someone who shoots up with heroin.
But saying that I do think that if someone wants to take a drug like Marijuana or Opium, why stop them? it is their life and what right does the government have to say what they do with it? the problems we have with drugs and related crime is more down to the banning of it than the sale of it.
"Which drugs are legal and which are not and the whole illegal drugs classification thing has bugger all correlation to.
a) How addictive the drug is
or
b) How dangerous the drug is.
Note that even 'How dangerous the drug is.' is a misleading statement as it give zero idea as to dosage or other activities performed while taking the drug."
True.
I'd be prepared to bet that neither Alcohol nor Tobacco (two of the biggest public health problem causing drugs) would pass modern product licensing.
Also, Victoria Cross, Légion d'honneur, Pullitzer, and every single Boy Scout badge.
I await with interest the inevitable shitstorm of bogus moral outrage from corrupt, booze-addled, rent-boy-renting rent-a-rant columnists, MPs and other unqualified moral arbiters.
Seriously though - the discovery, testing and eventual sale of safe legal highs would be the best way to pull the rug out from the narco-military-industrial complex
Will it taste better than the wines and spirits I usually enjoy? How will it pair with different kinds of food? Will it enhance my anticipation of a delicious dinner as a good aperitif is supposed to do?
While it can be argued - and accompanied by vigorous hand-waving - that "the sensation of alcohol" may help, say, a freer flow of conversation and maybe some other social activities at the dinner table, such an ersatz does not seem all that compelling to me.
Of course, if I were David Nutt, beavering away developing a new designer drug called 'synthetic alcohol' and I stood to make a bazillion quid or two from patents and license fees, what would I have to do before it could be sold on the streets? Oh yes, demonise alcohol by claiming it's more dangerous than LSD, persuade government to raise alcohol prices beyond the ordinary pocket so my drug would be the obvious 'cheaper' alternative, and naturally declassify entirely (or reduce the classification of) all similar drugs. That will do nicely.
You've clearly never read any of Prof Nutt's papers nor seen him on TV. While he may have ranked alcohol as more dangerous than many other substances, he's totally honest that when not abused most "drugs" will have no lasting impact on health.
That's why the government sacked him - Labour wanted to "be seen to be tackling the drug problem", and having an advisor who says they're relatively safe just doesn't compute in an MPs tiny mind.
1 pint of water or tea for every 2 units of alcohol consumed. Prevents a hangover very well (as most of the really bad symptoms are down to dehydration), but it will keep you going to the bathroom while it flushes out the poison. You'll still sleep much better for it. It also seems to reverse the intoxication slightly faster than other methods.
(avoid allowing someone without a measure to make cocktails, that is a recipe for disaster as I found out one evening)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!
The stronger the cocktail, the better the cocktail. Assuming it's still in proportion and tasting yummy. The trick is to train yourself to taste the strength, then ration appropriately.
>1 pint of water or tea for every 2 units of alcohol consumed
Pint of Continental lager at 5% ABV = 2.7 units.
Barman: Same again, mate?
You: Er, better not old stick. Could you rustle me up a pint amd a half of tea instead? There's a good chap. And the same for my chums.
Aye. Yer. Maw.
During the US prohibition grape growers used to sell blocks of grape concentrate with the warning that if water was added and it was left for 20 days it would turn into wine. A typical supermarket sells all you need to make high strength cider in a fortnight - UHT apple juice, sugar and bread yeast and lidded buckets. Just mix juice and sugar in bucket at room temperature and sprinkle yeast on top and put lid on. If you like your cider sweet and fizzy it will be that way in a week, if you prefer it strong, dry and still, leave for another week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States#Winemaking_during_Prohibition
There was an interesting paper on this (in rats) a few years ago. The researchers proved it was not the EtOH that made the rats wobbly but a cytokine reaction. Find a competitive receptor binder and wobbly rats walk straight.
Just so long as you apply the drugs directly to the brain (via a "sunroof"...)
Beer, 'cos....
P.
This guy's stuff doesn't go on to address the social aspects of drinking. Many drink in a social setting. By creating a "pill" that mimics the effects of drinking, this would hardly be a market idea. A hangover/drunk "cure" that would tell receptors that you're no longer drunk and your brain works at full capacity following a binge and a pill pop, then that'd be some stuff. Of course, since it only "fixes" the mind and not the alcohol content in the body, this "pill" might cause people to poison themselves to death with alcohol, while being sober. Fun stuff.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
