December 2, 2013

Professor Nutt has a new drug, to get you drunk without drinking.

"Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London and former drugs advisor to the U.K. government, said the drug would be consumed as a cocktail drink and targets neurotransmitters in the brain to mimic the pleasurable effects of drunkenness...."
"I’ve done the prototype experiments myself many years ago, where I’ve been inebriated and then it’s been reversed by the antagonist [i.e., antidote]," Nutt told the BBC. “That’s what really gave us the idea. There’s no question that you can produce a whole range of effects like alcohol by manipulating the brain.... I think this would be a serious revolution in health ... just like the e-cigarette is going to revolutionize the smoking of tobacco... I find it weird that we haven't been speaking about this before, as it's such a target for health improvement."
Nutt is seeking funding, but I don't think he'll get it. For one thing, wouldn't the government need to approve this drug and wouldn't it say no? Another thing is, drinking has a whole culture to it, which gives it a social and political acceptability that you'd never get for a new drug that gets you high. Drugs aren't supposed to get you high. That might be an acceptable side effect, but it can't be the end itself. You need some tradition behind your recreational drugs. That's why eventually they'll allow us to use marijuana and not just for the medicinal use. A tradition has developed around it over the years.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Better living through chemistry.

tim maguire said...

Doesn't he have it backwards? I don't want to get drunk without drinking, I want to drink without getting drunk.

teej said...

I want a new drug
One that does what it should
One that won't make me feel too bad
One that won't make me feel too good.

H. Lewis et al

Smilin' Jack said...

That's why eventually they'll allow us to use marijuana....

They might or They might not. The Land of the Free has become the Land of Them.

Lauderdale Vet said...

Not unlike Synthehol?

PB said...

Perfect thing to open source the synthesis of these compounds.

richard mcenroe said...

Big Whiskey will shut this upstart down...

Also, wasn't this "Vim", from a Doris Day movie?

kjbe said...

It targets neurotransmitters in the brain directly, giving the taker feelings of pleasure and disinhibition that are in some cases “indistinguishable” from the effects of drinking.

All he's done is taken the taken the metabolizing function of the liver out of the equation, but not the behavioral aspects of addiction. I question how much he actually understands addiction.

Craig Howard said...

Soma

Unknown said...

Craig Howard said "Soma". Correct.

Next: posters of Sandra Fluke wearing nothing but a Malthusian Belt.

Deirdre Mundy said...

Huh? What's the point of this?? Does he really think it will replace a good whiskey or a nice wine?

David said...

He's Nutts.

(Someone had to say it.)

Guildofcannonballs said...

Note to self: when I need millions of dollars worth of free promotions via media, steal 65 cases of some kind of booze and a few more cases of some other booze.

Insurance should pick up the value of items stolen, while the free promotions will increase the value of what we produce. From now on, anyone who drinks it will feel as though they are drinking history.

Laura said...

I cannot consent to this headline, when I have been informed of the existence of the term "bingeing." I cannot buy a copy of Alexander Pope, either, because as far as I know, my family never resorted to chastity belts. We just adopted the bastards, expensive little buggers.

Laura said...

Inspiration, Unknown.

Laura said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trashhauler said...

I bet I could get addicted to that.

Unknown said...

Huh? What's the point of this?? Does he really think it will replace a good whiskey or a nice wine?

No. He's trying to negate the after effects of alcohol abuse through chemistry. It's not gonna work.

Known Unknown said...

Don't people enjoy the longer process of getting drunk?


James Graham said...

Governments around the world depend on taxes generated by sales of alcoholic beverages.

This idea is a non-starter.

DougWeber said...

Somehow, this item brings to mind the movie "Lover Come Back".

Sigivald said...

... or we could just give up on all that giant waste of time and let people get high if they want to.

Because the State can't stop it, and creates far more problems than the being high, in its attempts to do so.

(Oddly, the "it can't happen because you'll never get acceptability" or "there's no tradition for it" wasn't a problem with same-sex marriage.

Why should "gets you drunk without drinking" be more difficult to accept?)

Legalize every drug right now.

Unknown said...

Thank you "unknown" (10:50 am). I was feeling like maybe, old? expecting a bunch of riffs on Hudson & Day & seeing none.