Real-World Synthehol In Development 273
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."
Instant (Score:5, Interesting)
you will have the option of getting immediately sober if you so desire it
Can I get drunk again later that night?
Missing the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Not really (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Missing the point... (Score:3, Interesting)
No, he said a few shots, not the whole bottle. If you have the bottle already in the cooler, and not had just bought it, then you're not quite an alkie yet.
Re:Missing the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
Throwing the car keys onto the dining table, pulling a bottle of vodka from the freezer and taking a few shots ... the perfect end to a usually cold, wet and crappy day in the so-called western-civilisation.
"I asked many people why they drank so much but never received an explanation that I fully understood. It was the tales of their escapades while under the influence of drink that brought me nearest to comprehending their need for it. It seemed to give them a few hours of freedom from rules which, during the rest of their lives, they reluctantly obeyed. If this was true, then in the example of my life lay a cure for drunkenness... never to conform at all." ~ Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
No thanks, I'm drinking. (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [memory-alpha.org] was invented, Romulan Ale [memory-alpha.org] (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."
Re:Headache? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Head researcher (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
Re:No thanks, I'm drinking. (Score:5, Interesting)
You make a valid point about the potential killing off of the art of home-brewing ... but other than that (very valid) issue, I'm not so sure your other complaints would really matter in the long-run. At the end of the day, the drugs society considers "more acceptable to consume regularly" are really just a matter of how popularized they've become. Caffeine, for example, is pretty much treated like a major food group, since it's found in everything from soda to cappuccino. Heck, they've even got caffeinated water you can buy. But if some other drug (like a small dose of the contents of ADD/ADHD medications, perhaps?) was the drug of choice to insert into carbonated beverages and such, instead? It might have been caffeine people generally thought was a little "unsettling" or "weird" to ingest as part of recreational drinking.
Re:Missing the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm waiting for the first published life reflection on the topic of wife-beater interruptus by a man whose blood-honey got wise to syntheholic Narcan. I'd dearly love to read an explanation by a man who experiences a sudden return to clarity mid swing.
The mind reels at the possibilities. If synaloxone is designed to be easily absorbed through eye membranes (there's another criteria for the designer checklist), it will soon become the feature ingredient in Pepperpoison H. This could lead to the baning of real alcohol. If real alcohol is banned, then only the alcoholics will have it.
Speaking of roids, how many drunks are going to drive home under the influence to maintain the party atmosphere, and quickly jab themselves at the first sign of traffic surveillance or air bag deployment? How is that going to be regulated?
Should this comes to pass, the law of unintended consequence is going to be working double shifts for several decade.
Re:Headache? (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, other major components of your hangover include:
For most of these it doesn't matter what quality vodka you drink.
Re:Headache? (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [wikipedia.org]. 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.
Re:Better Profit Through Pharmaceuticals (Score:3, Interesting)
Benzoes? How did a friend say: I tried everything. Even Heroine. But that benzo shit? That’s even worse!
Re:Headache? (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Whats Next? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, methadone is not a synth-anything, its a damn potent mu-opiod agonist in its own right, the difference is it doesn't cross the blood-brain-barrier in one big rush like dimethylmorphine(heroin) does. The reason heroin is "special" is that unlike morphine, methadone, etc., it manages to find a carrier protein that will preferentially transfer it across the BBB. Dimethylmorphine itself isn't terribly active, but once it crosses the barrier, the methyl groups are rapidly cleaved off, leaving, you guessed it, a ton of morphine. The only other way to get this particular effect would be via trepannation (i.e. cutting a hole in your skull and injeting it into the brain). This is why there's nothing else out there quite like it. For the record, I have never tried it (though I have tried methadone, didn't find it all *that* compelling) and never will. Heroin is a drug you do when you are 100% finished with life, on your deathbed, because if you do it before that, you'll quickly find yourself on said deathbed. It is one of the few drug scares where the government propaganda isn't all *that* far off from the truth. Mind you, there are people who manage to quit, or even moderate their use, but these people are few and far between. It simply is not worth the risk, I am sure the high is indescribably amazing, but its just not worth it. I'll stick to ecstasy and raving, thanks.
Re:Headache? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Headache? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Headache? (Score:3, Interesting)
You get hung over because you drank poison. The perfect hangover cure is morphine. Thread over.
Try this [daiwa-can.com], 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.
Surprisingly large & small gaps (Score:3, Interesting)
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.