2. Synthehol
Targeted habit: drinking.
Not everyone is an alcoholic, but a lot of us drink alcohol at least socially, and some even get drunk regularly when going out to parties and social gatherings. However alcohol is technically a toxin, and therefore not quite healthy even if the effect might be negligible in moderation.
In science fiction we’ve sometimes seen something called “synthehol” being consumed in futuristic bars, and recently we’ve seen some progress towards making synthehol a reality.
In a nutshell synthehol would give you the pleasant buzz without the drunkedness, any alcohol poisoning and hangover. It would use chemicals known as benzodiazepines, commonly prescribed for anxiety or insomnia, to mimic the same pleasant effects of alcohol, but which can be purged out of the organism at will using a pill.
This is down to work done by David Nutt who has, in his 20 year studying of ways to fight alcoholism, developed synthehol prototypes that could replace alcohol. They’ve tried it out and he says he’s “been completely zonked on a high dose“, but after taking an antidote it completely disappeared. They’re ramping up to investments and production so chances are we might start seeing synthehol for sale soon.
Photo by “Isn’t That Nice”
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