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Real-World Synthehol In Development
Ada_Rules writes "Researchers at the Imperial College London have announced development of an alcohol substitute that has many of the same properties as the Synthehol from the series Star Trek, in that one will get a buzz from it but will not end up with a hangover. In addition you will have the option of getting immediately sober if you so desire it. Let's hope this is not the typical vaporware. It is not that I really want a drink of Synthehol, but with its release I assume Romulan Ale won't be far behind."
Whoosh!
Dihydrogen Monoxide - two hydrogen one oxygen. H2O.
Basically, Dr. Nutt is proposing that we legalize one or two benzodiazepenes as a sort of replacement for alcohol (which could then, he suggests, be gradually marginalized and outlawed). Benzodiazepenes are a class of fast-acting drugs which includes Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, and Ativan (also a number of less-used ones like Librium and Tranxene).
And the problem with that is it's just not going to work. Leaving aside the fact that benzos don't feel the quite the same as alcohol (most people would find them overly sedating-- not really the thing you want to take before a night of clubbing), you have the problem that benzos are themselves very addictive. Ask any doctor. (They've all had to deal with the benzo-seeking patient who "lost his prescription" for the third time this month). I guess you could speculate that benzos taken ad libitum might prove to be somewhat *less* addicting than alcohol, relatively speaking, but there's no data to support that happy hypothesis, and good luck trying to design a study to prove it.
The rest of the article is full of irrelevancy and hand-waving. Dr. Nutt states that you can "sober up immediately" from a benzo, I guess by taking flumazenil-- and so what? Heroin addicts can sober up immediately with Narcan. That doesn't make heroin particularly safe.
He also says that his team is going to "identify the closest match to alcohol" from among "thousands" of benzos. The closest in what sense? Time of onset? Half-life? Xanax is close enough already. Receptor-binding profile? Not going to work, since no benzo will duplicate the multiple actions of alcohol on the neuron(which IIRC include effects on membrane fluidity). Anyway Dr. Nutt says that he wants his drug to be more "focused in its effects" than alcohol, so he wouldn't want a close analog even if he could find one.
In short: TFA is politically-motivated bullshit which might win Dr. Nutt some publicity and funding but will never produce anything useful. A previous poster got it right. If you want a safer alternative to alcohol, legalize pot. We already fucking *know* it's less addictive (and have the studies to prove it).
Everclear and orange juice. never a hangover.