Hangover-free alcohol will be on sale in the next five years. David Nutt, a product developer at Imperial College London and a researcher at Hammersmith Hospital, told the Guardian about this.
His invention, the synthetic alcohol Alcarelle, makes you feel drunk, but does not cause the effects of intoxication. Nutt is currently trying to refine the formula to get rid of the "not-so-good" taste.
Nutt invented synthetic alcohol back in 1983 while working to study the effects of alcohol on GABA receptors to treat diseases of the central nervous system. Alcarelle is likely to be regulated as a dietary supplement or ingredient, so safety testing is not done in clinical trials. The product has not yet gone through this procedure, so, the scientist complains, so far it can only be tasted in the Natta laboratory.
Also, in order to get approval from the regulatory authorities, the manufacturer needs to present the finished drink. The author of the formula teamed up with nutritional scientists to solve this problem, which usually takes about three years, but due to the uniqueness of Alcarelle, it may take longer.
Ten years ago Nutt was fired from his position as the British government's counter-narcotics adviser. He disgraced himself, saying that riding was more dangerous than ecstasy. He then submitted data to the leading scientific medical journal Lancet showing that binge drinking is more harmful to society than heroin or crack.
In November 2018, the ranking of the most drinking countries in Europe was published. According to the study, the leaders were the Estonians (15.35 liters of pure alcohol per year per person). The second place was taken by Lithuania (13.61 liters), the third by the Czech Republic (12.99 liters), and Greece was in the last place in terms of drunkenness (6.53 liters).