poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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This Scientist Has Invented a Synthetic Booze That Will End Hangovers and Alcohol-Related Deaths
Fun fact: alcohol abuse leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. It can be a lot of fun to drink, of course, but it is – as someone condescending will definitely have told you at some point in your life – a poison. A toxic liquid that single-handedly keeps Berocca afloat via the hangovers of millions of people, and can also lead to much more serious afflictions than a sore head and an intolerance of loud noises, such as liver cirrhosis, cancer and heart disease.
Lucky, then, that hero of psychonauts and former advisor to the British government, Professor David Nutt, has spent the last decade working on a synthetic booze that promises to do away with all that bad stuff. Nutt is confident that Alcosynth – which admittedly sounds a bit like a new romantic covers band – will have replaced alcohol entirely by 2050, but there are some tough obstacles in its way, from powerful alcohol companies to the absurd Psychoactive Substances Act introduced in the UK earlier this year.
I gave Professor Nutt a call to talk about how Alcosynth will work, and to find out when it might be available to people like you and me.
VICE: When did you start working on alcosynth?
Professor David Nutt: Back in 2005, when it was part of the government's Foresight Programme. Twice a year it picks a topic, and the topic that year was brain science and drugs. All of my professional life I have worked to reduce the problems of alcohol. Medicine is awash with alcohol problems, like seizures and withdrawal, so from the first day I was a doctor I've been dealing with alcohol problems in casualty. I've been trying to think of ways to reduce alcohol harm and withdrawal.
This foresight programme was very clever, because you do a lot of abstract brainstorming. We suddenly thought, 'Well, you can never get rid of the harms of alcohol as it's a toxic substance and poisonous – maybe we can replace it.' So for the last ten years we've looked for replacements. The science has moved on a lot; we can mimic the good effects with other pharmacological agents.
And you've found your final version?
We've got two used on human studies and more patented as back-ups. I mean, alcohol has a horrible taste – no one drinks raw alcohol. We're going to mask [the flavour] the same way you mask the taste of alcohol; some will go into non-alcoholic beers and tonics easily, others into sophisticated cocktails. We know they will work in drinks people like to drink. Cocktails will be the route to market.
Many cocktails were invented during Prohibition because, in the speakeasies, the alcohol was hooch, which was horrible. So they had to do intensive taste-masking, so cocktails got interesting and exotic to hide the taste. It's the same idea; you have to mask the taste of alcosynth.
And it'll get rid of the hangover?
Well, hangovers aren't the big issues, but they are the obvious manifestation of alcohol toxicity. Some people get indigestion as well, but getting rid of the hangover is not something we targeted. We could find an anti-hangover drug, but it encourages people to drink more. Hangovers are a deterrent and a model of toxicity. It's not the purpose of alcosynth, but it is proof of its non-toxicity.
Cont -
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/prof...booze?utm_source=vicefbuk&utm_campaign=global
Fun fact: alcohol abuse leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. It can be a lot of fun to drink, of course, but it is – as someone condescending will definitely have told you at some point in your life – a poison. A toxic liquid that single-handedly keeps Berocca afloat via the hangovers of millions of people, and can also lead to much more serious afflictions than a sore head and an intolerance of loud noises, such as liver cirrhosis, cancer and heart disease.
Lucky, then, that hero of psychonauts and former advisor to the British government, Professor David Nutt, has spent the last decade working on a synthetic booze that promises to do away with all that bad stuff. Nutt is confident that Alcosynth – which admittedly sounds a bit like a new romantic covers band – will have replaced alcohol entirely by 2050, but there are some tough obstacles in its way, from powerful alcohol companies to the absurd Psychoactive Substances Act introduced in the UK earlier this year.
I gave Professor Nutt a call to talk about how Alcosynth will work, and to find out when it might be available to people like you and me.
VICE: When did you start working on alcosynth?
Professor David Nutt: Back in 2005, when it was part of the government's Foresight Programme. Twice a year it picks a topic, and the topic that year was brain science and drugs. All of my professional life I have worked to reduce the problems of alcohol. Medicine is awash with alcohol problems, like seizures and withdrawal, so from the first day I was a doctor I've been dealing with alcohol problems in casualty. I've been trying to think of ways to reduce alcohol harm and withdrawal.
This foresight programme was very clever, because you do a lot of abstract brainstorming. We suddenly thought, 'Well, you can never get rid of the harms of alcohol as it's a toxic substance and poisonous – maybe we can replace it.' So for the last ten years we've looked for replacements. The science has moved on a lot; we can mimic the good effects with other pharmacological agents.
And you've found your final version?
We've got two used on human studies and more patented as back-ups. I mean, alcohol has a horrible taste – no one drinks raw alcohol. We're going to mask [the flavour] the same way you mask the taste of alcohol; some will go into non-alcoholic beers and tonics easily, others into sophisticated cocktails. We know they will work in drinks people like to drink. Cocktails will be the route to market.
Many cocktails were invented during Prohibition because, in the speakeasies, the alcohol was hooch, which was horrible. So they had to do intensive taste-masking, so cocktails got interesting and exotic to hide the taste. It's the same idea; you have to mask the taste of alcosynth.
And it'll get rid of the hangover?
Well, hangovers aren't the big issues, but they are the obvious manifestation of alcohol toxicity. Some people get indigestion as well, but getting rid of the hangover is not something we targeted. We could find an anti-hangover drug, but it encourages people to drink more. Hangovers are a deterrent and a model of toxicity. It's not the purpose of alcosynth, but it is proof of its non-toxicity.
Cont -
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/prof...booze?utm_source=vicefbuk&utm_campaign=global
