My take on this story is that this is basically David Nutt trolling the UK government. I don't believe it's his intention at all to look at the practicalities of manufacturing such a drug.

What he does want to do, however is to get the government into a knot with regard to its drugs policy. Nutt has always been for a drugs policy based solely on the harm that a drug would do. He wants drug policy to be stringently evidence-based.

So he starts talking about a drug with zero harmful side effects but with the enjoyable effects. He wants to try and goad ministers into talking about whether such a drug would be banned or allowed. So far the media hasn't really taken the bit between the teeth, however.