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."
Re:Headache? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Missing the point... (Score:3, Insightful)
... but we're not all writers or rock stars.
Better Profit Through Pharmaceuticals (Score:5, Insightful)
"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 [wikipedia.org].
Toxicity (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
I think we've seen this show before. It was called the 1950's and 60's.
Can't sleep? Take a pill to sleep. Trouble waking up? Take a pill to wake up. Now you're really awake and agitated and jittery? Take a pill to calm you down.
Be sure to wash those pills down with a nice distilled beverage of your choice and don't forget have a refreshing smoke.
Re:No thanks, I'm drinking. (Score:3, Insightful)
meh, just wait for the recipe to hit the net, and for someone to come up with a way to make it in a bathtub...
Re:Missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
Was that completely depressing for anyone else?
The Puritans won't like this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or the Catholics. If you're going to have fun, the punishment must be built-in.
I'm not alone (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
What for? (Score:5, Insightful)
slip the antidote in his drink? (Score:1, Insightful)
The antidote for being drunk or the antidote for being obnoxious?
Re:Headache? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Headache? (Score:1, Insightful)
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.
Re:Headache? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you RTFA?
"The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt,"
Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps Professor Nutt knows a little bit more about drug safety and legislation than you. He knows there are safer drugs, yet he also knows that they're not going to be legalised anytime soon.
Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute (Score:1, Insightful)
no, but the point is, David Nutt has TRIED to get the safer alternatives to be seen sensibly, and that's failed, so now he's trying something new.