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I wonder if there's a startup (or multiple) here? If you take GABA supplements it has some minor version of the affect of alcohol, and if I remember correctly alcohol is a GABA inhibitor. Is there a way to engineer a better, safer, equally or more enjoyable alcohol, maybe with less judgement impairment?

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This is what benzodiazepines are[0] and they are not safer than alcohol[1][2]. Alcohol and benzodiazepines are cross-tolerant with each other[3].

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6147796

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19465812

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816010/

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2712270/

You could also just make something fun that doesn’t work like alcohol or benzos.

Plenty of such compounds in existence.

But getting a recreational drug « approved » for sale is difficult. But maybe not impossible.

And chances are the attributes that make it relatively safe in 500mL-beer-equivalents probably make it possible to consume 10x amounts for 10x pleasure but still 5x worse negative effects than that 500mL beer.

Alcohol’s side effects contribute to its self-limiting self-administration for a good chunk of the population.

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