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David Nutt announces research on 'synthetic alcohol'

I love how people forget to mention that the antidote causes seizures in higher doses and has a very small therapeutic window.
 
He's looked into a handful of BZD receptor partial agonists. No GHB analogues. that's silly. Not readily reversible either.

I assume it's something like bretazanil or pagoclone, but there are lots of others.

It's actually a brilliant idea.

And on the matter of other alcohols. They're generally less toxic. Short chain <8 carbon, non-branched simple alcohols are generally less toxic than ethanol and significantly more potent. N-pentanol is about 3-4x more potent than ethanol.
 
Alcohol Substitute That Avoids Drunkenness & Hangovers In Development

Alcohol Substitute
That Avoids Drunkenness
& Hangovers In Development

By Paul Rodgers and Richard Alleyne
Telegraph.co.uk
26 Dec 2009



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.


But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body.

Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober.

The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt,
Britain's top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy.

He envisions a world in which people could drink without getting drunk, he said.

No matter how many glasses they had, they would remain in that pleasant state of mild inebriation and at the end of an evening out,
revellers could pop a sober-up pill that would let them drive home.

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 and then, if necessary, tailoring it to fit society’s needs.

Ideally, like alcohol, it should be tasteless and colourless, leaving those characteristics to the drink it’s in.

Eventually it would be used to replace the alcohol content in beer, wine and spirits and the recovered ethanol (the chemical name for alcohol) could be sold as fuel.

Professor Nutt believes that the new drug, which would need licensing, could have a dramatic effect on society and improve the nation's health.

The NHS report Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2009 found more than 800,000 alcohol-related admissions to hospitals in 2007-08
– and more than 6,500 deaths – at a cost to the service of £2.7bn a year.

Some charities estimate that the toll could be up to five times higher. Drink is, for example, a factor in 40 per cent of fatal fires, 15 per cent of drownings,
65 per cent of suicides and 40 per cent of domestic abuse. It also has other costs, including 17 million lost working days a year, worth about £20bn to the economy.

“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.

“No one’s 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?”

Getting the drug approved could be hard for the team as clinical trials are expensive, and it is not clear who would pay for them, according to Professor Nutt.

He said that the traditional drinks industry has not shown any interest, however some countries might be persuaded to sponsor the team.

Some countries have more liberal regimes than others, though, and Professor Nutt thinks Greece or Spain, within the EU, could lead the way.

The latest Home Office performance figures showed that more than one in four people believe that alcohol is blighting their community.

A survey of every police force area in England and Wales found that 26 per cent of those polled “perceived people being drunk or rowdy in public placed to be a problem in their area”
– a slight increase from last year.

The fears over the affects of alcohol range from urban to rural communities, with the worst hit being Manchester, South Wales, London, Northumbria and Gwent.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6874884/Alcohol-substitute-that-avoids-drunkenness-and-hangovers-in-development.html
 
Im curious just exactly what this substitue alcohol will be.. They say its related to diazepam (valium) so im wondering how they are going to get this to be approved if its related to benzos??
 
Wait, so they're trying to make benzo-like substances mainstream, but other drugs are still *evil* ?
 
never going to happen.. just won't.. alcohol and the like are far too engraved in the American (among countless other countries/culture).. plus the government and basically EVERYTHING is somehow connected to money involving alcohol in some shape or another..
for fucks sake.. our country is just NOW "slowly" starting to come around about a much less harmful drug, marijuana.. but yet thousands die every year involving alcohol..
it all comes down to money.. and it just will never happen..
if this happens, will I have to go to my doctor to get a schedule III prescription before going to the bar?..
just a few crazy thoughts to throw out there..
 
why would you want alcohol that doesn't get you drunk? that is why i drink liquor.
 
Ideally, like alcohol, it should be tasteless and colourless, leaving those characteristics to the drink it’s in.

Since when is ethanol tasteless? It tastes like shit, imho.
 
Alcohol substitute huh, well lets just see where this goes in the near future especially if it's related to benzo's. Seems pretty out there I don't think it'll go to far most people drink TO get drunk so I don't know how folks will react to this.
 
Sounds stupid to me, though I also can see what is attractive about it.
I would rather stick with good old alcohol, which has thousands of years of history behind it, than a drug that may or may not fuck up your brain in ways that we might not know about for a decade or more. (Then again, I am not addicted to alcohol...)
 
If the "sober-up" pill is flumazenil, then no thank you.

The Wiki article on pagoclone touts it as a possible candidate, which makes me wonder what a cocktail of pagoclone and etifoxine would be like (the latter is not reversible by flumazenil).
 
I learned in school that benzos are basically solidified alcohol. It effects the same part of the brain (from what this professor said). So, I guess it makes sense, chemically, that they mention Valium.

I love the feeling of being drunk, but HATE the after effects psychologically and the toxic effects on the body. The next morning, my anxiety is always through the roof etc. Would be nice to have an 'on and off' switch, so to speak.

I'll believe it when I see it. As another poster said, there is too much political money involved with alcohol companies. The lobbyists will fight this to the end (unless, of course, it plays into their greed with the drug companies).
 
In some ways it doesn't sound like to bad of an idea. I wouldn't want it to replace alcohol though. I enjoy alcohol for being it's self, and wouldn't want it any other way.. well there are some things I'd like to change about it, but the intoxication that it gives you, I'd like to keep.
 
It would be fantastic as a designated driver drug. Go out and party like everyone else, pop your pill and drive home.

Heck iv never been the DD but I would be more then happy to with something like this. Fuck cabs, fuck them all to fucking hell fucking.
 
Sounds like a great idea, and from the sounds of things it would mean you could keep drinking and drinking, and feel "drunk" without the mood swings or any negative things like that.
Would certainly make clubbing and the roads safer provided people remember to take the pill with it
 
I would think anything designed to give you a buzz would be an addiction risk, at least psychologically. Anything that makes you feel good would engage the 'reward' system of the brain where addiction can take hold...
 
There was an article on this or something similar posted a while ago, it sounds like its some form of benzo or atleast a benzo like drug. In reality there are plenty of already existing CNS depressants that can be used as an alternative for alcohol, personally I think this is a big waste of time. If they come out with it I wil ltry it though, always down for a new buzz.
 
They will be addictive and the "antidote" will be shorter acting than the actual Benzo-esque substance meaning that even if it's taken it'll wear off and you'll be under the influence again.
I saw that on a Horizon program where a friend of Mr. Nutt tried it out (think it was Pagoclone) and the BZD antagonist wore off quite quickly and he ended up being fucked up again.

Still, if it ever comes into use then I'd be well up for going to pubs again =D
 
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