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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects
#4526855 - 08/12/05 03:09 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects August 12, 2005 - independent.co.uk
It is the news that clubbers have been waiting for. Scientists are working on a range of recreational drugs that can produce similar effects to alcohol but with fewer of the side-effects.
Experts looked 20 years into the future to discover what kind of drugs we would be taking, and came up with a surprising range of findings, that open up the prospect of Sunday mornings without a thumping hangover or the "parrot's cage" mouth.
They have also been able to separate the effect of one psychoactive substance from its addictive properties, leading an expert panel to advise Government ministers that "this could pave the way to non-addictive recreational drugs".
One of the new substances has even been found to reduce the side effects of recreational drugs. "Such compounds might allow users to shape their drug experience," said the panel headed by Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser.
His report to the Trade and Industry Secretary, Alan Johnson, raises the possibility that, in a generation, Britain's dinner parties could become more like Woody Allen's "orb" scene in the futuristic film Sleeper, where guests get high by rubbing the orb instead of inhaling a joint.
The report said: "There are a number of new and developing technologies that could be used to deliver drugs in new ways. Examples include patches, vaporisers, depot injection and direct neural stimulation ... this may encourage the development of technology for the slower release of recreational psychoactive substances, which could reduce the risk of addiction."
Some drugs developed to tackle health problems are capable of being used for improving the performance of the brain. Madafinil, which was introduced to treat narcolepsy, can keep normal people awake for three days, says the report.
Other drugs could be used to stop alcohol triggering a need for a cigarette. "Drinking with friends might no longer create a trigger for an individual to smoke tobacco," the panel said.
Illicit laboratories that have supplied the black market with drugs for years may also accidentally discover drugs that could help sufferers from degenerative diseases in old age. "Perhaps the next major breakthrough in treatments for Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, may come from some informal developer seeking to find the next rush," says the report.
However, the report could give ministers a hangover. It raises questions that they would prefer to be swept under the carpet.
In addition to raising the possibility that new drugs could remove the nasty side-effects of recreational drugs, it raises taboo subjects such as whether in future, prohibition is the right way to stop young people using drugs such as ecstasy.
It says an early warning of new drugs on the scene is essential in order to manage their use. "Such insights could play a key role in limiting the harm of any new recreational substances. It might also become apparent that some psychoactive substances are less harmful. Their use might be encouraged to replace more harmful ones."
Such a move would require a change in the drug laws because such drugs would be illegal. Sir David says in a foreword to the report: "We are on the verge of developments which could possibly move us into a world where we could take a drug to help us learn, think faster, relax, sleep more efficiently or even subtly alter our mood to match that of our friends."
The expert team ran a number of different workshops with members of the public to find out their views on how society would react to new drugs, and also did extensive scientific reviews. They also looked into the prospect of medical advances for tackling mental illnesses - such as clinical depression - by incorporating drugs in food.
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: veggie]
#4526938 - 08/12/05 03:30 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Sounds like a few more steps in the right direction. Except for the lacing food with drugs bit...that just sounds too iffy to me.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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zee_werp
a fractalcreature
Registered: 03/24/03
Posts: 1,026
Loc: Aotearoa
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: dblaney]
#4529498 - 08/13/05 07:31 AM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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"Sir David says in a foreword to the report: "We are on the verge of developments which could possibly move us into a world where we could take a drug to help us learn, think faster, relax, sleep more efficiently or even subtly alter our mood to match that of our friends.""
Lame.
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delta9
Active Ingredient
Registered: 10/28/04
Posts: 5,390
Loc: California
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: veggie]
#4530289 - 08/13/05 01:34 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: Some drugs developed to tackle health problems are capable of being used for improving the performance of the brain. Madafinil, which was introduced to treat narcolepsy, can keep normal people awake for three days, says the report.
Why does the government love stimulants so much?
-------------------- delta9
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IsaacHunt
Stranger
Registered: 05/27/05
Posts: 176
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: veggie]
#4530350 - 08/13/05 01:56 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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It is the news that clubbers have been waiting for. Scientists are working on a range of recreational drugs that can produce similar effects to alcohol
Who the fuck wants a drug that can "produce similar effects to alcohol?".
Obvious thing to point out is recreational drugs with no side-effects exist already - psilocybin, mescaline the first two I can think of.
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delta9
Active Ingredient
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Loc: California
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: IsaacHunt]
#4530638 - 08/13/05 03:49 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Please don't take offense, it's just my writing style...
Quote:
IsaacHunt said: Obvious thing to point out is recreational drugs with no side-effects exist already - psilocybin, mescaline the first two I can think of.
Obvious that you're just as sharp a tack as "those" guys... *all* drugs have side effects.
-------------------- delta9
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IsaacHunt
Stranger
Registered: 05/27/05
Posts: 176
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: delta9]
#4532842 - 08/14/05 04:09 AM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Obvious that you're just as sharp a tack as "those" guys... *all* drugs have side effects.
Care to explain what on earth you're talking about?
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: delta9]
#4533876 - 08/14/05 01:12 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Side effects is subjective anyway. If you use cannabis medicinally, then the euphoria and thought patterns are unwanted side effects, so it would vary from person to person.
Though I assume in this case they're talking about harmful dysphoric side effects, which even psilocybin and LSD can have during a bad trip or other situations. I think a recreational drug that wouldn't let you have dysphoric side effects may not be as spiritual as LSD or psilocybin, but we'll have to wait and see.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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ShroomArtist84
Stranger
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: Ravus]
#4534032 - 08/14/05 01:58 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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i think this wont change shit. people always want that better feeling, im sure this recreational drugs being made will not give you the feeling of your standard drug. For example; E.
-------------------- No matter what I say and no matter what I write here. I'm sick of always looking at this page with a blank stare.
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: ShroomArtist84]
#4534074 - 08/14/05 02:10 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Maybe not, but there's always a time for the new. At one time, acid was a new drug that didn't give you the standard effects of the amphetamines and alcohol prevalent at the time. Then E was a new drug that didn't give effects like acid does. Now a new drug will come along that doesn't give effects like E does. Who cares anyway? We need more variation.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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RedNucleus
Causal Observer
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Re: Coming soon: the recreational drug with no side-effects [Re: veggie]
#4539180 - 08/15/05 05:46 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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makes me think of Brave New World's soma. Not that that's a bad thing. I mean look at the alternative. Drugs are a problem.
-------------------- Namaste
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