Scientist Develops Alcohol Substitute, Cure for Hangovers

I am highly intrigued by Dr. David Nutt, who has developed a chemical substitute for alcohol that mimics being tipsy without any of the nasty side effects: hangovers, bar fights, paternity lawsuits, and so forth. His chemical compound releases some of the dopamine (happy brain juice) we normally get from alcohol, and also looses you up the way a pint or two will, but doesn’t activate the part of your brain that causes you too pass out in the street or fall off a bar stool. It also avoids gut-punching your liver the way binge drinking will. But that’s an almost redundant precaution, as it manages to swerve around whatever hardware defect we have which makes excessive drinking seem like a great idea (at the time). If this product takes off, it’s unlikely scotch (which has a very intricate and nostalgic distillation process) would be replaced. But cocktails and beer as we know them might, which means things like frat parties, New Year’s Eve, and Glaswegian [insert literally any event] could calm down quite a lot in the future. If all goes according to Dr. Nutt’s plan, we could eliminate most of the massive societal destruction of alcohol within a single lifetime. Too late for my GPA, but maybe not for future generations.

Learn More: This Alcoholic Substitute Could Get You Drunk Without a Hangover