PARADIGM SHIFT: SINLESS SPIRITS?

Respected psychopharacologist David Nutt wants to use cutting edge science to create safe, non-addictive, synthetic alcohol that gets you just as sauced as the real thing and comes with its very own sober-up pill.

He said: “I think this would be a serious revolution in health... just like the e-cigarette is going to revolutionise 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.”
The scientist said 10 per cent of drinkers become addicted, and that addicts account for most of the one and a half million people killed by alcohol every year. The Professor said that the drug would be taken in the form of a range of cocktails, and added: “I’ve done the prototype experiments myself many years ago, where I’ve been inebriated and then it’s been reversed by the antagonist. 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.”

So... a product with all the anxiolytic and euphoria-inducing qualities of alcohol that doesn't wreck your liver, rot your brain, and cause you to plow your SUV into a bridge abutment on the way home... sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Who on Earth could possibly object to such a thing?

Well, how about the rather deep-pocketed and morally ambiguous alcohol industry, for starters?

Keep your eyes on this story, folks. If Nutt ever gets any serious backing for his endeavor - and a recent appearance on Dragon's Den suggests that he's looking - the corporate shenanigans it will invariably lead to will involve some serious popcorn-bait.