Slashdot Mirror
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."
you will have the option of getting immediately sober if you so desire it
Can I get drunk again later that night?
We're (apparently) close to the first, time to start making some serious progress towards the second.
I was always under the impression that taking paracetamol and other similar drugs along with alcohol was rather unhealthy to the liver and whatnot...
Drinking lots of water is always good though!
ìì!
Mixing acetaminophen with alcohol is terrible advice.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
and take two paracetamol before you go to bed.
That's two Tylenol to us Yankees.
Drinking lots of water is always good though!
Great. You'd better just stick to the water then.
Deleted
Having the option of getting immediately sober is rather missing the point of drinking alcohol ... it is the assured descent into a carefree state with no possibility of reversal that is one of the last few pleasures left in life. ... the perfect end to a usually cold, wet and crappy day in the so-called western-civilisation.
Throwing the car keys onto the dining table, pulling a bottle of vodka from the freezer and taking a few shots
You are correct. Paracetamol which is better known as Tylenol, metabolises into N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine which is what actually damages the Liver.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
This is the stupidest post I've ever read on /. That's saying something.
Mixing acetaminophen with alcohol is terrible advice.
It does however work quite the thing after drinking a cheap red for example.
Deleted
How about Synthcrack, or Synthheroin?
So if some drunk is being obnoxious at the bar you can now slip the antidote in his drink?
Prof Nutt and his team are concentrating their efforts on benzodiazepines, of which diazepam, the chief ingredient of Valium is one. Thousands of candidate benzos are already known to science. He said it is just a matter of identifying the closest match.
From my benzo experience, I doubt any benzo will replace alcohol. Alcohol effects a whole range of neurotransmitters, not just GABA.
And this is the "we can just turn it off" part:
“I’ve been in experiments where I’ve taken benzos,” said Professor Nutt. “One minute I was sedated and nearly asleep, five minutes later I was giving a lecture.
Since good old valium, benzos have been getting shorter and shorter acting with faster and faster clearances, but you can get such short actions that to get any sort off effect you have to shovel the stuff in IV just to keep up with the clearance. I don't know of any oral approach than can be turned off like a switch.
And doesn't someone already have an "off-switch" type pill for good old ethanol. It doesn't turn off the liver processing or clear the acetylaldehyde souring your stomach, but it would clear your head enough to drive.
Ethanol does not metabolize into methanol.
Further Smirnoff is perfectly fine Vodka.
Anybody who spends more then about $US12 on a 750 of Vodka is just a moron who watches too much TV and believes what he sees on commercials.
Save your money for booze where quality is harder to achieve. Vodka is just pure Ethanol and water.
Some of the most toxic components of booze are leached out of the char in the barrels. If you must get drunk do it on clear booze for lesser hangovers.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Let's read between the lines here...
From TFA:
In this one sentence we see: (a), an appeal to the neo-prohibitionist/nanny-stater lobby to spin this story into a positive, and (b), because you can't make this stuff at home, a pharmaceutical company is going to get a cut. Alcohol's easy to make - take some yeast and just about any form of sugar (or starch that can be converted via enzymatic action into sugar) - and you've got yourself the foundations of beer, wine, and distilled spirits. Synthetic valium, not so much.
Net effect here is that we all wind up hooked on benzos as depressants, rather than alcohol. Hey, that's fine if valium's his depressant of choice, but it's not one of mine. What's next, a move to replace the caffeine in coffee (my stimulant of choice :) with slightly-modified speed?
From the TFsummary:
As cool as it sounds, that's not a feature, that's a bug.
Allow me to nerd out for a bit: When Synthehol was invented, Romulan Ale (which presumably contained real alcohol) became illegal.
And if you go back and re-read TFA, you'll see that's pretty much where this is goin. This guy's not interested in an alternative to alcohol, he's looking for a substitute for alcohol. Even if he is working in good faith, his efforts will be used to help the neo-prohibitionists. And I can't get down with that. Because I like real ale, Romulan or not. (Homebrewing is like turning half the basement into a mad scientist's chemistry lab for a day, and it's all the more fun because you get to consume the product of your experiment when it's done!)
Around this time of year, I usually say "A drink? No thanks, I'm driving." But on this one, I'm gonna have to say "Benzos? No thanks, I'm drinking."
Who cares about getting sober instantly ? I'd rather get instantly wasted. I'll take a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster over romulan ale any day!
Uh, no. Put down the drink, it seems to have damaged your brain.
The primary cause of most hangover symptoms is very simple: Dehydration. The rest are caused by the presence of metabolic by-products of alcohol, which cause, among other things, a decline in available glucose for use by the brain, inhibition of liver function, and vitamin B12 deficiency.
For more information, wikipedia is your friend.
Never underestimate the value of a tall glass of Dihydrogen Monoxide. What bugs me though is the original stories implication the Romulan Ale dose not yet exist.
On the contrary, I was able to buy Romulan Ale AND Klingon Blood wine at the Star Trek Museum.
Of course this facility also hosts a Bar called "Quark's at which you are encouraged to drink a "Warp core breach", so some of these beverages may not be exactly as advertised.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Further Smirnoff is perfectly fine Vodka.
Smirnoff is paint remover. Try Samson instead. It's not in fact very expensive.
Vodka is just pure Ethanol and water.
Clearly you know your vodkas.
Deleted
"Prof Nutt and his team are concentrating their efforts on benzodiazepines, of which diazepam, the chief ingredient of Valium is one."
In other words, let's invent another Happy Pill that will make big profit for Big Pharmco. And we'll call it an "alcohol substitute" because alcohol is well-known as the active ingredient in alcoholism, and you're in favor of a cure for alcoholism, right?
Good thing they're not calling it a "Valium analog", what with Valium's well-known and deserved reputation for causing addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.
-kgj
Romulan Ale is alcoholic, not sythoholic and a cocktail recipes are available at that link to those with no sense of self-preservation.
If it is ingested orally, then it will be metabolized in the liver. What about its toxicity? If it's the same or higher than alcohol, then the illusion of safety may in the end be detrimental to the health of the user.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
Try Hertikamp (sp?) it's ten bucks/750ml and recommended by Russians.
I generally find that people who 'know their vodkas' are idiots who think that advertising and spending a lot makes a product better.
I bet you can't tell Smirnoff from your favorite vodka double blind.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
after a night of heavy drinking, a tall glass of dihydrogen monoxide, along with a bottle of gatorade. means I haven't had a hangover in years. That means I can drink a whole bottle of rum, and then shots of tequila, and wake up happier than most people.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
The article says that alcohol has only been around for 3,000 years. This implies that leavened bread has only been around for that long. Wonder what the yeasts were producing before and why so many animals have the enzyme alcohol dehydroginase.
Nate
Or the Catholics. If you're going to have fun, the punishment must be built-in.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Can I blame my mistakes on my friends and a case of synthehol? Can I drink a girl pretty with synthehol? Will this help ugly people get laid? These are the important questions!
You know the first thing I'm gonna fucking do, is mix this shit in my rum and cokes while chewing some nicotine gum and smoking a fat joint.
And I know I'm not the only one.
Liberty.
To avoid a hangover with the real stuff, just stay hydrated. Not difficult.
It seems that the head researcher on this project is David Nutt, who was sacked by the British government over his "controversial" views on drugs like THC and ecstasy. What a bunch of blowhards; but then I'm not one to talk, since the teabaggers here hold the same rigid views.
The guy is awesome. Having been sacked in a purely political manoeuvre by Jacqui Smith (spit) it sounds like he now leads an Alexander Shulgin-like life of synthesising new chemicals and trying them out faster than the government can ban or control them. Sadly the same reasons for him being sacked will probably mean that this project doesn't gain any traction. Politics trump science and reason...
I'll just stick with Saurian Brandy.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
It better be vaporware.
I love the aroma of a good glass of real wine. If the synthetic stuff doesn't measure up then what's the point?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Actually, other major components of your hangover include:
For most of these it doesn't matter what quality vodka you drink.
Liberty.
If you take the antidote without consuming the synthehol, will you become excessively sober?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The antidote for being drunk or the antidote for being obnoxious?
Yeah, right. Like society is going to suddenly get over their prejudices about "drugs" and it's going to be acceptable to consume this, take an antidote and drive or go to work or other drinking taboo. In societies where they still criminally prosecute and jail people for the mere possession of marijuana. (which to an established, regular user is relatively harmless)
What junk are you drinking? Smirnoff?
It isn't the alcohol which gives you a headache. It's the alcohol in combination with the rest of the crap in the beverage.
Either buy decent quality and/or drink a glass of water for each drink and take two paracetamol before you go to bed.
There seems to be reason to believe that the hangover is caued by acetaldehyde. Though, I have noticed that some drinks are worse than others. For example, I think red wine has very small amounts of alcohols other than ethanol, alcohols which are a bit more toxic. It's probably also why I seem to get much more subjectively drunk from red wine than an equivalent amount of most liquors. Beer has a similar effect with me, and I assume that's because of the hops. Hops alone are sedating, and in fact hops tea (non-fermented, non-alcoholic) can be used as a natural sleep aid or a way to relax.
From that Wiki article:
Most people of East Asian descent have a mutation in their alcohol dehydrogenase gene that makes this enzyme unusually effective at converting ethanol to acetaldehyde, and about half of such people also have a form of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase that is less effective at converting acetaldehyde to acetic acid.[16] This combination causes them to suffer from alcohol flush reaction, in which acetaldehyde accumulates after drinking, leading to immediate and severe hangover symptoms. These people are therefore less likely to become alcoholics.[17][18]
The drug disulfiram (Antabuse) prevents the oxidation of acetaldehyde to acetic acid, and it has the same unpleasant effect on drinkers. Antabuse is used as a deterrent for alcoholics who wish to stay sober.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
"Warp core breach" - A 50/50 shot of vodka and castor oil.
Served at an event with 1,500+ people and about 10 porta potties.
Clearly Wikipedia is the font of all knowledge (that was sarcasm (for the Americans)). You haven't had your brain replaced by a parrot brain have you?
Huh, clearly you're not illiterate, yet you apparently didn't even read the article I posted, which explicitly mentioned cogeners as exacerbating hangover symptoms.
Meanwhile, nowhere in the article you linked to do I see text which suggests that "It isn't the alcohol which gives you a headache"... probably because that's completely false.
We already have alcohol substitutes ( read: recreational drugs ) that are safer than alcohol. Only problem is, they're illegal.
You can't handle the truth. Dr. David Nutt, the British government scientist that was recently fired, did an exhaustive study of the real impact of recreational drugs. Herion was 8.32, alcohol 5.54, Cannabis 4.00, LSD 3.68 and Ecstacy 3.27. A higher score is worse.( Many other drugs were in the study).
So we already have several safer alternatives to alcohol.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
and yet the article in wikipedia clearly says...
"Hypoglycemia, dehydration, acetaldehyde intoxication, and vitamin B12 deficiency are all theorized causes of hangover symptoms".
so how can you authoritatively assert what causes a hangover when the scientists, at least according to that article, aren't even sure?
Paracetamol which is better known as Tylenol
Paracetamol is not better known as Tylenol, only a tiny proportion of the world population know paracetamol as Tylenol.
And the GP is not correct.
along with alcohol was rather unhealthy to the liver
Paracetamol is metabolized whether there is alcohol involved or not; Paracetamol is unhealthy for the liver regardless.
Deleted
So I suppose, then, that you have a citation or two that demonstrates that alcohol plays on role, whatsoever, in the development of a hangover? I know I've never come across such a thing, which seems to suggest such a theory is *highly* unlikely, but hey, I could certainly be wrong.
from a bottle of very old Scotch whiskey!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
i don't need to provide a citation to anything. you're the one that cited wikipedia and misrepresented what it said.
Ibuprofen is metabolized in the kidneys and gets you the same result.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
but I know someone who is. They would advise all slashdotters (and anyone else for that matter) that it is an incredibly bad idea to take any paracetamol when you have been drinking alcohol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol.
It is very toxic to your liver. Better to drink responsibly, consume quality products and remember that a reasonable consumption of water only protects you from the effects of hydration but has no real effect on the contaminants that cause the headache and nausea. Wait until the alcohol has been metabolised (2 hours per unit) and then take the lowest dose possible or some other analgesic.
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
Capt Kirk did it, so now I can too.
no comment
...that in the real world, alcohol making you drunk is the whole point! We certainly don’t drink it because of the bitter, burning taste. ^^
If this had any chance of being a success, then people would already prefer non-alcoholic cocktails and brews for a looong time.
And I don’t see that being the case, or ever happening.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
If you read the article, they are using substances that are related to the same family or compounds that you find in Valium and other depressants. You very well might see them succeed, but I can't imagine drinking beer that has a warning label to not mix with (real)alcohol.
yes drinking water after each drink is good, i also might add drinking a litre before bed to be a good option as well. and if your stomach can tolerate it, taking two ASA tablets wouldn't be a bad idea either.
I'm sorry, where did I misread? Your initial post flat out state that alcohol plays no role in hangovers. Your subsequent post was to cite an article which does nothing to support that claim, instead identifying an additional factor (cogeners) which plays a role in the product of hangovers. And your last post was entirely content-free.
So, please, enlighten me. What did I miss?
No, I found the perfect solution. Tested an proven many, manyy times by me and friends of mine:
Eat a really nice filet steak *before* going out! Or something similar. The redder, the better! (Less destroyed molecules.)
I never have hangovers anymore. I can’t remember the last time I had one. Even if I drink like a hole.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
All American vodkas are equivalently tasteless due to stringent industry regulations on filtering for products bearing the label of vodka. American vodkas are, in fact, pretty much pure ethanol and water.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Ah, yes, I see, you seem to believe that the statement:
"It isn't the alcohol which gives you a headache. It's the alcohol in combination with the rest of the crap in the beverage."
Is more accurate than simply:
"It isn't the alcohol which gives you a headache."
Of course, it's not. Both are false, and for the exact same reason: They both imply that alcohol, alone, doesn't play a causative role in the production of hangovers, which is silly, given that it's the dehydration caused by alcohol which creates headaches, and the metabolites of alcohol which create many of the other symptoms.
Nonsense. Slashdot is a US centric site and here the brand name is Tylenol.
both of them are bad for the liver. The combination of the two is worse than either of them by themselves. The maximum dose of Tylenol is cut in half if it is taken with a reasonable amount of Alcohol. SO the statement that taking Tylenol and Alcohol together is bad for your Liver is still true.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
That’s simple to explain: Good alcohol has little fusel alcohols. Which are a product of incomplete transformation to alcohol. Or of adding sugar to it. And whiskey simply has more of them, as the strongly distilled vodka.
The sugar (and cheap alcoholic products) inside is why cocktails can be even worse.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
What's this stuff?
It is... [pause] [sniff] It is green.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Your thinking this is a US centric site does not make it a US centric site. This is the Internet - people from everywhere read (and submit) articles from everywhere
I still don't get why you Americans insist on naming things after the most popular brand name when they already have proper names either, to the rest of the world it's like calling all card Fords or all computers IBMs.
You are correct. This however does make slashdot US centric.
From the slashdot FAQ: Slashdot is U.S.-centric.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
And you're obviously not a scientist - gravity is also a theory. Also you seem to think wikipedia is the be all and end all of knowledge when in fact it usually ends up stating conservative theories like this because everyone and their dog can edit the article and they have to compromise to avoid an edit war. You've also missed the point, which was the poster who said alcohol played no role in a hangover - despite the myriad varieties of alcohol all managing to cause one with the common ingredients being ethanol and water.
Is your liver carry-on luggage?
As someone who's drank practically every type of ethanol under the sun, from Busch beer to Johnny Walker Blue to fortified "wine" to home-brewed mead to gluten-free beer to Cristal to Everclear, in every combination imaginable, getting blackout drunk on nothing but neat Jim Beams all night or Guinness or a different drink every time, who's tried every hangover cure, multivitamins, aspirin, Vicodin, hair of the dog, bacon and eggs, a gallon of water before bed, drinking a large glass of water between every alcoholic beverage, you name it, I can say with the utmost confidence that the "impurities" have fuck-all effect on your hangover.
Try evaporating all the alcohol out of the worst possible plastic-bottle booze, and drink the remains all the way down. You won't feel a thing. Now go raise your BAC to 0.25% with 100% pure lab-grade ethanol, drink a bottle of water between every serving, take a four Tylenol before bed, and tell me how you feel in the morning.
You get hung over because you drank poison. The perfect hangover cure is morphine. Thread over.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
The FAQ seems to disagree with you.
Because Paracetamol isn't just paracetamol; it's also called acetaminophen and on occasion Panadol. Technically the proper chemical name for it is N-acetyl-p-aminophenol so why not use any of those names instead? The reason being that most people in the US know what Tylenol is. The rest of the English speaking world could call it whatever it wants but the majority of Slashdot's readership consists of Americans.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
And bbviously, you're not a good reader. The dude authoritatively said that dehydration is the primary cause of a hangover, based on a wiki link that he cited. However, the wiki link doesn't say that and is in fact inconclusive about what the primary cause of hangover is, let alone what causes a hangover.
besides that, the original poster's point may actually be correct too. There are other things in different types of alcohol that cause hangovers to be worse/better than others, which the dude citing wikipedia is trying to discredit. however, the wikipedia article even specifically mentions white wine causing less of a hang over than red wine because of content other than alcohol (and subsequently ethanol dehydration).
finally, that dude citing wikipedia decided to go off and be a pompous fucking ass by saying the original poster had brain damage. so i felt the need to put him in his place instead of misrepresenting what the wikipedia article said, which he originally cited, not me.
Somehow, the chemists in my lab have been making benzodiazapines for years without ever once mentioning that they're good for getting drunk off of.
I suppose its the part where they make about a gram of it in a month that kills the temptation to drink it.
I feel like punching people when they call their SUV's Jeeps.
mediocrity rules, man
I came here to post this exact thing. Philistines, the lot of you.
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
Hint: It was from a poll. Admittedly the pizza poll but it's practically the same thing as a location poll. 52% for north america, which would include canada. http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1900&aid=-1 The poll may be slightly slanted to Europe for everyone who went to italy and had expensive pizza but since there are gourmet pizzas on every continent most people will have voted where they live.
The definition of vodka is water + alcohol. Anything more makes it less of a vodka. The only thing sillier than a wine snob is a vodka snob.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Synthehol is so next century. Wake me up when someone can import real Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blasters to Earth.
That bet is on. Name a time and a place. If distance is a problem, we'll organize something with an alternative control group or whatnot.
Anyone who tells you that wodka is just ethanol and water is talking nonsense and taste definitely does matter with some (if not most) brands. Hell, you'll probably have to blindfold me since I'm probably able to see the difference by the slight variation in color and I'm not even a wodka-fan (my last wodka was years ago).
Oh, I am talking "the real deal" here, not that American filtered crap. Do you do the same thing with whisk(e)y and cognac?
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
Cogeners have a stronger impact than metabolites when it comes to hangovers.
Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012
Why bother with creating synthehol when legalizing marijuana would have the same effect -- plus, we know marijuana won't destroy your body. Who knows what this synthehol will do to you in 10 years?
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Most people attribute the headaches from red wines to the oak, but I'm pretty sure nobody has quite nailed down the problem..
1. Hangover cure - B vitamin complex and 2 aspirin before bed. Next morning you're good to go. 2. Recipe for Romulan Ale: 2 quarts of Kool-Aid Berry Blue and grain alcohol (or vodka) to your taste. For hangovers, see item 1.
Nitewing '98
Everything works...in theory.
Whoosh!
Anyone else thinking about a certain Wii related competition?
Three percent of slashdot readers said Antarctica has the best pizza. It therefore stands to reason that three percent of slashdot readers are Antarctican.
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
You're close, it isn't the alchohol, it's the impurities.
Generally, really high quality alchohol (wine in particular, but any aged liquor will too) has some bitchin impurities that give it such wonderful flavors and aromas. The sole purpose of the aging process in any fine liquor is to add impurities from the barrels they are aged in - the aging serves no other purpose and aging in anything that does not impart impurities does nothing at all to the alchohol. Stuff like good scotch, bourbon, rum, gin, brandy, all wines, spiced drinks like ciders and mulled wines, etc. will all give you nasty hangovers if you over do it. The longer it is aged the higher the impurity, and the higher the impurity the better the quality. In other words, Quality = Hangover.
Because of this, low-impurity alchohols like vodka or beer (different kind of impurities there), and cheap kill-you-if-you-over-drink stuff like grain alchohol will rarely give you a hangover.
If you finish off the night with a glass of milk or some ice cream the enzymes therein will take care of a lot of the impurities, taking the edge off the hangover. Egg-nog is great for this if you want to keep getting drunk ;).
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Drinking lots of water is always good though!
That's what Leah Betts thought.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Paracetamol is metabolized whether there is alcohol involved or not; Paracetamol is unhealthy for the liver regardless.
Acetaminophen (*ahem*) is metabolized through two pathways. One uses reducing equivalents (-SH groups) and the other not. The first produces a non-toxic metabolite, the other does not. (check out this diagram) As long as you have reducing equivalents, you're fairly safe. Metabolizing alcohol uses up those reducing equivalents, so it makes acetaminophen toxicity a lot worse.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It's rather watered down, I'd imagine.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Beer has a similar effect with me, and I assume that's because of the hops. Hops alone are sedating, and in fact hops tea (non-fermented, non-alcoholic) can be used as a natural sleep aid or a way to relax.
Yup, if I drink a lot of beer I fall asleep too. Must be the hops.
-=Steve=-
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
It...it...it....it is green!
Okay, so let me get this straight:
it's a chemical,
that's meant to be ingested, (and thus a drug)
and that has no medical use,
and (presumably, like alcohol) is likely to be abused,
and that (presumably) can cause damage or death if abused.
By US law at present, this should be Schedule I and banned immediately.
Why is is acceptable for scientists to produce synthetic alcohol, whne in the same week the FDA have just banned another set of synthetic / natural marijuana substitutes ?
Alcohol is well known to cause aggression and does untold damage to the liver. Whereas most soft drugs make you passive and give you the munchies, yet there is little proven research on the long term effects to the body.
Could it be that if we actually applied some common sense (i.e. ignored the Americans), there'd be one less "war on [topic]" for them to fuck up ? Prohibition didn't work in the 20's, you'd think they'd have learnt SOMETHING from that ?
In the UK you can get that for £6, which probably works out to about $10ish
-- All your booze are belong to us.
The U.S. centric entry is nearly 6 years old. Slashdot was quite different back then.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Is there something wrong with your "V" key? Cause that ain't how you spell vodka. You may pronounce it that way... if you have a Russian accent.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I think you're full of shit.
But I'll at least test this before I can definitively determine whether or not you actually are full of shit. I don't have anything to do tonight, or tomorrow, so what I'm going to do is drive down to the liquor store and buy myself a bottle of Everclear. I am going to take that Everclear and mix it with water (actually, probably lemonade), and I am going to get piss-off drunk. I'll finish off the night with a bigass glass of milk.
Tomorrow, I will come onto this board, and depending on how I feel, I'm going to tell you whether or not you're full of shit.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
"Less talk, more synthehol!"
This ain't rocket surgery.
You get hung over because you drank poison. The perfect hangover cure is morphine. Thread over.
Try this, and then tell me morphine is the only cure for a hangover. Seriously, drinking that stuff before you start drinking leaves you without any hangover at all the next day.
- These characters were randomly selected.
Yes, it's a specifically American phenomenon, because they're all stupid. I've never heard a Brit call their vacuum a Hoover, or refer to 'hoovering' or an announcement on the Tannoy. Not that I'm assuming you're British. Just providing examples. And maybe your arrogance is well-deserved in that you're more vigilant than most and always say 'vacuum flask' instead of 'thermos'.
Actually you wouldn't want to drink a bottle of lab ethanol--it's probably denatured, i.e. made unfit to drink by addition of nasty stuff like methanol. This is because most places exempt denatured alcohol from the extra taxes on drinkable alcohol.
That would be the fairly constant 2-3% donkey vote, look it up, it's fairly consistent across all types of election.
Two words: Grape juice
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
a) Americans do it regularly, other countries hardly at all b) I'm not British
c) I always say vacuum for vacuum cleaner
d) Yes I say 'Thermos' but Thermos is closely associated with the function of the device (as i'm sure you're aware, knowing what a thermometer is) and also a shortening of 'thermal flask' which also allows the word to be used for flasks which perform the same function but with solid insulation rather than a vacuum.
A minor byproduct of alcohol metabolism is formaldehyde. There is some methanol produced in reactions to make ethanol. The methanol is converted to formaldehyde by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase. Formaldehyde exposure causes bad headaches and other symptoms normally associated with a hangover. (reference, pay attention to the symptoms not caused by external exposure.)
Treatment for formaldehyde exposure (or hangover)? Consume lots of water to help flush the toxin out of your system... or consume lots and lots of ethanol to swamp out your alcohol dehydrogenase, so it won't have the opportunity to metabolise the methanol before it gets flushed out of your system.
The profuse vomiting often involved in a hangover your body convulsively shedding the destroyed surface of your stomach. This is caused directly by high concentrations of alcohol killing the cells of your stomach lining.
This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
I move to add this title as a tag.
But seriously, I'm curious. How much of this synthehol can you drink before overdosing? And what about the effects of mixing it with REAL alcohol? There isn't anything you can't consume too much of, even water.
The alcoholic in me says I'm gonna try some as soon as it comes out.
What junk are you drinking? Smirnoff?
Ahem:
A Humble Old Label Ices Its Rivals (January 26, 2005)
Any vodka is basically just pure grain alcohol mixed with mineral water. It's virtually impossible to get a hangover from it, aside from just drinking a lot of it.
"Brown goods" like whiskey are a lot more likely to leave you in a poorly state, and lower-quality ones have more junk in them that will mess you up. It is therefore true that drinking cheap crap will result in more hangovers, but it really doesn't apply to vodka, and anyway, Smirnoff is not even a bad vodka.
I'd hardly call posting on slashdot important :P
I always buy my Dihydrogen Monoxide dehydrated. Just add one quart of water to one quart of Dihydrogen Monoxide and stir until mixed.
Ahhhh, refreshing!
Actually you wouldn't want to drink a bottle of lab ethanol--it's probably denatured, i.e. made unfit to drink by addition of nasty stuff like methanol. This is because most places exempt denatured alcohol from the extra taxes on drinkable alcohol.
Not likely. Most lab ethanol is made "undrinkable" by adding crappy tasting shit or laxatives, very rarely methanol as that'll actually blind/kill you. I know because we had to look up WTF was in it before we drank it, it tasted like crap but got you drunk and otherwise no ill effects. And there's two kinds, the "regular" kind which is corrupted like that and the 96% pure ethanol variety, which contains nothing of the sorts though only doctors get the latter in small quanities. It was never much but enough to get us started with perfect taste, it contained nothing but alcohol and could be mixed with anything.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
No, it's the alcohol, which fucks your internal pH, along with the other shit in the drink.
The trick is to drink enough water to keep your pH from going off - this is how you die from alcohol poisoning.
Paracetamol EXACERBATES the problem by causing irregular pH fluctuations in your blood.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
What a worthwhile argument to be having!
He's trying to be a pretentious douche by misspelling the Polish word "Wódka*".
I suppose I shouldn't say "trying" because he is doing just fine at that.
(Let's hope this unicode works, preview says it should.)
If your stomach is up to it, regular old aspirin is a much better choice. If your stomach can't handle the aspirin you probably shouldn't be filling it with alcohol either.
But its also a concern that if synthehol was produced, how would we know if it was safe of not, it would take usage by milliions over they adult lifetime, before we genuinely know weather the chemical was safe.
But good luck to Prof, Knut, who will probably have some very wild parties testing outs his candiate benzodiazepines.
---
Drug Addiction Feed @ Feed Distiller
(In generally agreement with the parent, I'll elaborate...)
Generally speaking, what causes a hangover is the ugly toxins in most drinks that come along with the alcohol. Unfortunately, these toxins also come from what gives your drink it's flavor. Unless you're drinking vodka, of course, which is basically diluted ethanol.
Drinking water will flush it out of your system a bit faster, but there are also some types of food that help it along, like, say, eggs. So, get in the holiday spirit and make a batch of eggnog! (sans alcohol, of course)
Ethyl alcohol does not metabolize to methyl alcohol. However, most distilled spirits have some tiny amount of methanol and higher alcohols. Poorly distilled spirits may contain acutely toxic amounts, for example if the distiller doesn't discard the heads. The higher alcohols are from the tails. They also can contribute significantly to a hangover.
The hangover part of the methanol BTW is that it metabolizes to formaldehyde. Since ethanol competitively inhibits methanol metabolism, if you keep well hydrated, it will wash out before it can cause a problem.
Uhm, no. Data said that with synthehol, the "intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed". That means it does intoxicate you -- it's just that you can shake off the intoxication somehow.
Plus, Scotty was whining about the lack of any real alcohol. If a member of the crew was off-duty, why shouldn't he or she be allowed to have a real drink? Synthehol was a replacement to alcohol.
Synthehol is what Starfleet crews can drink while on duty because it tastes like the real thing but DOESN'T give you a buzz or get you drunk.
While on duty? Pretty sure Starfleet doesn't want their crews drinking anything that could intoxicate them while ON DUTY, even if you can dismiss the effects.
mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
n-acetylcysteine plus vitamin b1 plus vitamin C, pre and post ethanol ingestion. I usually take 600 mg n-acetylcysteine for two drinks, 1000 mg vitamin C, and a generic B-complex vitamin, before and after. I wouldn't believe everything this guy has to say (fundamentalist in his own respect), but the point about acetaldehyde and antidote should be remembered. http://www.ceri.com/alcohol.htm
I still don't get why you Americans insist on naming things after the most popular brand name when they already have proper names either, to the rest of the world it's like calling all card Fords or all computers IBMs.
The generic name used in the US is acetaminophen; this is the first time I've ever heard of paracetamol. Strangely, though, the most common labeling used by generic brands is "non-aspirin", with "acetaminophen" in tiny print. That's obviously dumb.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
But us beer snobs...we're legit.
That sounds more potent than this version
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
The point is to not load up the liver with a multi-part biochemical assault with various drugs and alcohol on top.
Combinations of nasty chemicals are known to react in the liver and result in increased damage. Some compounds can tie up pathways that would be otherwise used to rapidly break down something harmful.
OFTOMH, for example BHT, a widely used food and drink additive (E321), is metabolised by the liver and blocks up the livers capacity to process alcohol and recreational drugs. A big dose of BHT could mean you get dangerously drunk off a small amount of alcohol.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
"Hypoglycemia, dehydration, acetaldehyde intoxication, and vitamin B12 deficiency are all theorized causes of hangover symptoms".
so how can you authoritatively assert what causes a hangover when the scientists, at least according to that article, aren't even sure?
Presumably because they don't get invited to the right kind of parties at university to gather data.
There is no substitute for field work.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Yes.
Alcohol is unhealthy for the liver.
Paracetamol is unhealthy for the liver.
Alcohol + Paracetamol is rather unhealthy for the liver.
I actually recently found a quite interesting technique to avoid a hangover. It basically involves taking cysteine with vitamin C to neutralize acetaldehyde, while drinking. I already did some experimenting and I think there might be something to this.
The guy was a couple of days ago on a Google Tech Talk in which he discussed about other nutrients for the mind too.
Ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, and then from acetaldehyde to acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I feel like punching people when they call their SUV's Jeeps.
That's OK. I get the same feeling when I hear soccer moms call it an SUV when you know good and well that less than 1% use the "S" part of it. Almost EVERY vehicle has utility, so the "U" is obvious. What's left? A vehicle... but Marketing wouldn't stand for that, would they? Many "SUV" drivers are the same people that'd buy Brawndo because "it has electrolytes!"
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
Drinking a litre before going to bed is a great way to ensure you have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, or wake up in a puddle of piss in the morning.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
idiot. You can drink pure ethanol and you'll still get a hangover if you drink enough of it. "all the other crap"... what other crap do you think is in vodka, beer, wine etc. that you don't get in other foods or fruit juices? I never heard of anyone getting a hangover from a non-alcoholic food or beverage.
Also, taking paracetamol (2, for chrissakes!) whilst drunk is a certain recipe for liver trouble.
If that's how you've been avoiding hangovers up to now, I'd get checked up ASAP... there's a strong chance you already have irreversible damage.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
I was always under the impression that taking paracetamol and other similar drugs along with alcohol was rather unhealthy to the liver and whatnot...
If you're at a level where you're hung over, Paracetamol will damage your liver.[1] However, the liver regenerate quickly, so if you only do this occasionally and have nothing that blocks liver regeneration generally, this should be relatively safe. My wife is an MD; her toxicology teacher recommended use of Paracetamol against hangover rather than Ibuprofen or other NSAIDs, as the increased risk of stomach damage from the alcohol/NSAID combination was more of a problem than the liver damage.
Eivind.
[1] Alcohol is converted to acetaldehyde as a part of the breakdown process; cystein is consumed by the process that handle acetaldehyde safely (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine) and the poisonous effects of breakdown products of acetaldehyde when you lack cystein seems to be a large part of being "properly hung over". Paracetamol poisoning comes from lack of glutathione in the handling of paracetamol breakdown products; glutathione is made from cystein in the body, so having a hangover (lacking cystein) implies that paracetamol will rapidly deplete glutathione and the breakdown will be poisonous.
Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
Actually, paracetamol seems to be less toxic if taken while drunk, but more so if taken the day after. The enzyme (a cytochrome P450 oxidase) that transforms paracetamol to the toxic substance (N-acetyl-iminoquinone) can also oxidize alcohol. If there is alcohol present, the transformation of paracetamol goes slower and/or by other routes, so taking it while drunk leads to lower blood concentrations of N-acetyl-iminoquinone*. However, when there is alcohol present, the liver produces more cytochrome P450 to detoxify it quicker, and that surplus is still there the day after, so the degradation of paracetamol to N-acetyliminioquinone is faster, making paracetamol more toxic. So don't use it to combat hangovers.
*This have been investigated in a double-blind experiment, where people either got a alcohol-contaning og non-alcoholcontaining intravenous drop (IIRC). When I first read this article, I was rather amused about the idea that people should be unable to tell the difference, but placebo intoxication seems to be rather powerful.
There seems to be a better explanation than the one I gave for the heightened toxicity of paracetamol while having a hangover. However, that does not explain the data for people being drunk...
Actually, wodka is the Dutch spelling. Sorry for that.
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
Ahh, thank you for the explanation for the heightened toxicity while being hung over, I think I have heard it before, but have forgotten it (and thus made a rather erroneous post), and for the toxicological angle on which NSAID to take against hangovers.
However, your explanation does not explain the lower level of p-acetyl-benzoquinone in the blood if paracetamol is taken while drunk.
IANAToxicologist, so I might have missed something in the article, though, or it might just be a type I error.
It seems to be closer to the polish spelling. But that will just lead us to a violent discussion of whether russian or polish vodka is better/truer/more original...
I'm curious as to why this is modded troll. The Tylenol/paracetamol discussion aside, he is very correct. Mixing alcohol and Tylenol/paracetamol is extremely dangerous, particularly over an extended amount of time. Both alcohol and Tylenol/paracetamol by themselves are indeed bad for your liver, but the combination of the two, particularly in cases where painkillers are actually warranted (very heavy drinking scenarios, if you've just had a single drink you really shouldn't be worried about a hangover...) is very liable to destroy your liver. If you've ever seen someone die, waiting for a liver transplant, you'll have an understanding of what a terrible fate that is.
As far as all of this Tylenol/paracetamol nonsense is concerned, all I have to say is that, as an American, I had no idea what paracetamol was until it was originally pointed out that it was "better known" as Tylenol. I think that the "-1 Troll" moderation is being used a bit too lightly around here right now.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
GP is full of shit.
Ow, my freaking head...I think I'm going to go lie down now.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidiWe9yq88
I get up early when the sleeping pill wakes me
I take a wake up pill and fill with energy
I power on hard and I check my messages
But I don't have any messages
I take a driving pill and head to my car
I drive around a bit cuz work isn't very far
I call my phone and I check my messages
But I don't have any messages
All I know is driving on drugs feels better when they're prescription
All I know is the world looks beautiful, the world looks so damn beautiful
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
Work is anything but quiet these days
I try to medicate my concentration haze
I can feel the day unfold in front of me
So I take the stairs and hit the gym
The phone is ringing when I get to my desk
What was a stinging's now a sharp pain in my chest
So I take a Calminex and just chill
And then it's time for lunch again
All I know is work is easy when you don't stress out about deadlines
All I know is I take my medicine I always take my medicine
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
Sometimes I'd like to slow things down
Enjoy the moment
But when I look the moment's gone
Work is over but I can't stay to work late
Got to leave and get ready for my second date
With a pretty girl that I met at the pharmacy
Right in the prescription line
I take a pill for my social anxiety
I get a table and a nice bottle of chablis
Now it's getting late and there's still no sign of her
I have another glass of wine
All I know is the wine lasts longer when you don't gotta share it with someone
All I know is my steak tastes better when I take my steak tastes better pill
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
I'm surprised that cannabis did only marginally better than alcohol and that the gap between heroin and alcohol was so large.
I've never known anyone to fight or commit vandalism after smoking pot and while I'd agree its inadvisable, I think stoned drivers are less risky than drunk ones, especially at the low end of drunkenness/stonedness. Pot also is much easier on your body and does not produce a physical dependence or illness to the same magnitude that alcohol does (even if you factor in high cholesterol from snacking).
Heroin addiction I can see being destructive, but much of that seems to be a result of legal sanction, not the inherent danger of the drug (interaction with criminal enterprise, impure/uncertain quality, high prices leading to theft, etc). True it is addictive and many addicts chase the "rush" of injection (as opposed to the high itself) which ends up resulting in overdoses, the opiates are not corrosive to the body and in fact are tolerated very well for long periods of time.
I suspect these "scores" factor in maleable social and legal circumstances as constant factors and do not weight the actual pharmacological properties enough.
There's some sort of genetic predisposition to various types of hangover. My wife drinks a small glass of water and has no problems no matter how much she had the night before (her brother is the same way).
Headaches are typically dehydration headaches, and what you suggest works well for me for that. But alcohol can irritate the GI tract in some people (such as me), and this can lead to nausea and vomiting, and these things can themselves produce a second kind of headache not cured by hydration. The only way I've found around this second set of symptoms is moderation.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Are you stupid? APAP(paracetamol)+alcohol=poisoning.
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
Then you didn't drink enough. Then again, so did I. Cheers!
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
Don't drink shit and replace the water you piss out. A pint of water just before bed will stop virtually all headaches.
Because Paracetamol isn't just paracetamol; it's also called acetaminophen and on occasion Panadol. Technically the proper chemical name for it is N-acetyl-p-aminophenol so why not use any of those names instead?
Paracetamol is the Official International Non-Proprietary name as given by the World Health Association (as it does for all pharmaceuticals) and is therefore perfectly valid in official international use for a pharmaceutical standpoint. The International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry name (the official name used in chemistry, and generated according to specific rules is N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanamide and is considered the official chemical name for it.
Anything with acet is the United States Adopted name and is not official in anyway on the international scale, and goes back to a naming system that chemists threw out years ago with international standardization and a chemist would only use it as a name for acetone now just because it's shorter than it's actual chemical name and doesn't include the eth carbon grouping that all other acet did it was confusing and so acet was thrown out in favour of true systematic naming.
Sorry "World Health Organisation" it should read. Maybe I should have used the acronyms.
I certainly agree with you that anyone who claims that a $40 bottle of vodka is generally "better" than a $20 bottle is generally full of crap. Vodka is essentially supposed to be close to pure ethanol and pure water. Smirnoff and similarly priced vodkas get close enough to this ideal that expensive vodkas are not actually "better."
That isn't to say that they aren't quite different in character. Potato vodkas, for example, are often quite different from grain-based vodkas. And the kind of water that is used can make a big difference in flavor.
So, while I agree with you that Smirnoff is a perfectly fine vodka, I also think people can prefer some of the subtle variations of flavor offered by different brands. If you want to pay a premium of a couple hundred percent for that subtle flavor, that's your choice. You may not be getting any closer to the "ideal" vodka, but if you're drinking it straight, you can tell the difference with many brands. (If you're just mixing it, I agree that you're an idiot to throw expensive vodka in.)
I generally find that people who 'know their vodkas' are idiots who think that advertising and spending a lot makes a product better.
That's true of just about everything. Studies have shown that even wine judges in major competitions (who certainly are supposed to "know they wines") display enough variance as to make their collective ratings almost meaningless. And wines usually have much more variation than vodka. Most people who think they have "taste" in anything are like this, so it's not unique to vodka.
I bet you can't tell Smirnoff from your favorite vodka double blind.
Perhaps for some or even most. Not for me. My favorite vodka is fermented from potatos, rather than grain-based, and it tastes quite a bit different from Smirnoff. But I generally don't care enough to pay the premium for it. Vodkas can be remarkably different in taste due to variations in distillation and the type of water used. Yes, they're all very close to pure ethanol plus water, but the little bit of junk left in can sometimes make a big difference in flavor. I'm not saying that makes it worth paying ridiculous amounts of money for it -- Smirnoff is perfectly fine for most purposes -- but if someone wants to pay a premium for that subtle flavor that they may or may not actually taste, who am I to judge?
That said, I did a little blind tasting a few years back after I first bought my favorite potato vodka. Three friends tried four vodkas blind. One of them considers himself a bit of a booze snob, one drinks quite a bit but has little "taste", and one has probably had less than a dozen drinks in his entire life. The four vodkas were a premium mainstream vodka, my premium potato vodka, Smirnoff, and a really cheap vodka (cheaper than Smirnoff). They all made their decisions privately before sharing them.
All three caught the really cheap vodka and declared it awful (not as smooth as the others, a bit caustic and astringent). All three also declared the potato vodka to be one of the premium ones (probably for its distinctive flavor), though they couldn't agree on whether it actually tasted "better" -- it was just "different". As for the remaining two vodkas, my booze snob friend identified the Smirnoff correctly (and said it wasn't as good), my drinker friend with no "taste" liked the Smirnoff better, and my friend who doesn't drink expressed a mild preference for the premium, though he really didn't know.
So, say what you will, but I think there is at least an argument to be made that some premium vodkas have distinctive flavors, even though they are all trying to be pure ethanol and water. Whether it's worth spending $25-40 on a bottle instead of $10-15... well, that's your choice. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a difference, at least among some.
People say the same thing about wines, coffees, cheeses, or anything else for which they haven't acquired a taste.
If you can't tell the not-very-subtle difference between Smirnoff and a good potato vodka like Chopin, then by all means you should stick to the cheap stuff, but that doesn't mean that other people shouldn't enjoy what they like.
The stuff we used in the chem lab in college was 190 and 200 proof USP grade ethanol. It was tightly controlled and not worth going through the trouble of sneaking out of the lab to drink. If you really wanted Everclear, you could drive an hour South and pick some up in Pennsylvania.
I buy BRAWNDO because it's like having sex with a tractor trailer in a parking lot!
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
I don't believe this either, so when I've got enough energy to endure another killer hangover, I'll test it empirically, also.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
As bizarre as it sounds, the drug laws are so batshit and inconsistent in many countries that it wouldn't surprise me that it's actually the new synthehol that gets banned, whilst alcohol remains legal! This is commonly the case with any new chemical (e.g., the recent UK's criminalisation on "legal highs"). All it takes is single death that can be indirectly related to it, a scaremongering campaign by a grieving mother, and it'll be banned.
Indeed, from TFA:
"No ones ever tried targeting this before, possibly because it will be so hard to get it past the regulators. Most of the benzos are controlled under the Medicines Act. The law gives a privileged position to alcohol, which has been around for 3,000 years. But why not use advances in pharmacology to find something safer and better?"
Also note that Professor Nutt, who is quoted, was recently sacked as a Government advisor, because the factual scientific evidence he presented was deemed incompatible with the Government's views on drugs.