Former UK Government Drugs Adviser Professor David Nutt has claimed that alcohol will be erased from society within a generation or two, as it is replaced by a safer alternative.
Now, Nutt has a vested interest: his venture Alcarelle are currently seeking $12m in funding in order to bring an ‘alcosynth’ to market across the U.S. U.K. and Europe. Their product mimics the intoxication element of drinking, without the physical toll to the body/society.
‘Hangover-free alcohol’ is how it has been reported so far, and while there is no doubt this product would be a financial success based on that factor alone, the benefits Nutt is describing stretch far beyond the financial.
“In another 10 or 20 years, Western societies won’t drink alcohol except on rare occasions,” Nutt tells the International Business Times.
“Alcosynth will become the preferred drink, in the same way that I can see – almost within a decade now in the Western world – tobacco and cigarettes will disappear as they’re replaced by electronic cigarettes.”
“It could well change culture,” he explains, pointing out the $220bn cost to the American economy caused by alcohol-related mishaps. “If there’s less intoxication then there will be less violence on the street, less vomiting and less unpleasantness in our city centres.
“There are some people that want to get intoxicated so they can just fight or be ‘out of it’, but most people want to drink alcohol to enjoy the experience, though inevitably alcohol harms them.”
The Alcarelle drink would feature what is known as a “plateau” effect, meaning that once a drinker reaches a certain level of intoxication, the drink has no further effect.
“Alcohol kills more [people worldwide] than malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis and dengue fever put together,” Nutt explains.
“Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could replace alcohol with something that led to almost no deaths? That would be one of the greatest public health developments in the history of the world.”
