With the recent finding that moderate drinking might not, after all, help prevent heart disease and the contribution alcohol might be making to colorectal cancers, this news may be perfectly timed.

A cocktail of drugs that mimics the pleasurable effects of alcohol without the downsides.  The idea is only on the drawing board, but there is no scientific reason why it could not be made right now, says psychopharmacologist David Nutt of the University of Bristol.

The trick pharmacologists need to pull off is to make a mixture of molecules that deliver alcohol’s pleasurable effects, notably relaxation and sociability, without the aggression, nausea, loss of coordination and amnesia that can cause drinkers and those around them so much grief.  Long-term problems such as cirrhosis of the liver could also be eliminated, says Nutt, who publishes the idea next month in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

This drug gets 2 thumbs up from me because now when I am crawling on the floor looking for my table mate, I will not have to admit being drunk out of my mind from booze.  In the meantime I will just keep my Faraday flashlight hooked to my belt at all times.