David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, is partnering with the institution’s tech transfer unit Imperial Innovations to explore the possibility of bringing an alcohol alternative to market, according to a report in news provider The Guardian.
Nutt is developing a drug which relaxes the central nervous system, similar to alcohol and other drugs such as barbiturates and valium. Users would be able to consume the drug in a cocktail which would be intoxicating but harmless to the body, and then would be able to take a second drug which counteracts the effects of the first, effectively sobering them up. Nutt hopes that the new drug will also be able to deliver its intoxicating effects without triggering addiction or withdrawal issues.
Nutt told the Guardian: "I have spent 20 years trying to reduce the harms of alcohol, and then about 10 years ago – while working under the UK’s Foresight initiative – we thought ‘we’ll never stop alcohol being toxic because it’s intrinsically such. It causes cancer or liver disease, for example. So why don’t we replace it with a safe drug?’"
For commercial reasons, Nutt has not released further details of the proposed drug. Nutt was previously the chairman of the UK Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs before being released for publishing data which suggests alcohol and tobacco are much more damaging than cannabis, LSD, and ecstasy. The professor is looking to bring the drug to market, with the assistance of Imperial Innovations, by 2015 if it can find the funding.
