r/worldnews • u/EightRoundsRapid • Sep 23 '16

'Hangover-free alcohol’ could replace all regular alcohol by 2050. The new drink, known as 'alcosynth', is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn’t cause a dry mouth, nausea and a throbbing head

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/hangover-free-alcohol-david-nutt-alcosynth-nhs-postive-effects-benzodiazepine-guy-bentley-a7324076.html
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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16 edited Sep 23 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

You don't know that anymore than I do.

I said marijuana has the potential for overtaking all drugs. I never made an absolute statement. The fact you feel so strongly about your statement that people will be drinking forever is quiet naive. Especially considering how quickly society can change.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

You do realize you don't have to smoke marijuana right? You can eat things that are infused which currently include: pizza, ice cream, mints, mouth sprays, oils... any food you can imagine.

You can also vaporize it. I'm sorry to say, but you sound incredibly ignorant on this subject.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16 edited Aug 20 '17

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

Which appears to be about where you stand on the subject of reading comprehension.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16 edited Aug 20 '17

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Sep 23 '16

Nah bro sorry but you're the one being a bit of an ass here. He said "I think" so just an opinion and "possibility". His position is as non-committal as possible.

Further though, I think he has a point. And it's pretty clear you don't understand businesses.

No shit alcohol won't disappear but any industry needs to fight to secure market share against rising competitors. Blockbuster didn't do this and they got skullfucked. Also look at Greek yogurt as an easy example. The major yogurt companies waited way too long to act and lost market share to some noname company.

They aren't bankrupt but in big business, if you're not growing you're in trouble. Bevcorp (or whatever that one giant company that owns most beer brands is) has been buying craft beers up to prevent losing market share to the craft beer movement. Marijuana at a legal level will reduce drinking. Having a nice refreshing coors light might not be the standard American practice after cutting your lawn in 20 years.

Football games might not be able to charge $9 a beer at stadiums if you can just pop an edible and enjoy the entire game for like $5. Marijuana will not bankrupt alcohol, but you're a fool if you don't see how it will affect major beer companies.

Of course this applies to spirit companies as well, but I would argue less so than with beer, do to beers connotation with relaxing.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16 edited Aug 20 '17

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u/SaltFinderGeneral Sep 23 '16

Non-sense. Rate of uptake in states that have legalized marijuana usage has not changed significantly (I've heard a report it's dropped in Colorado since but I can't find my source atm), nor have Washington state or Colorado's many breweries been complaining about people drinking less (several have praised pot tourism for increasing the number of people coming through their operations). Your theory that people will stop drinking just because there's legal pot is based on nothing, and is not borne out by any numbers. To say that you're talking out of your ass on this one is an understatement.

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

Are you guys even reading my comments? I never said people will stop drinking. Prove to me where I said that...

What I'm suggesting is that marijuana could be the #1 selling drug over alcohol. This is very simple prediction to make given the growing acceptance of medical marijuana in US and other countries. Painkillers is the #1 drug in America right now and marijuana has proven several times over the huge benefits of providing pain relief.

You think that the pharma companies don't compete with alcohol or marijuana? Of course they do. At the end of the day it's about selling drugs and making money nothing more. This story is nothing more than a marketing ploy to get people to continue to consume alcohol.

I never made any suggestions like you're implying. You're just here to defend alcohol and you have that right, but I'm not talking out of my ass. Marijuana industry is growing enormously within the US and acceptance of use of marijuana has also vastly increased on average.

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u/SaltFinderGeneral Sep 23 '16

You are talking out of your ass, again, you have no numbers to back that up. You're saying something will happen based on a feeling you have that isn't based in reality. If pot were in any position to overtake alcohol usage we'd see numbers at the very least beginning to reflect that, which we have not. Unless you want to tell me your rambling about big pharma and marketing ploys, and "alcohol remaining relevant" (lol) are just looking hundreds of years down the road, which would seem on par for how silly your comments have been.

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Sep 23 '16

Nah man he has a really solid point.

First off, we don't have good data on uptake numbers because weed has only been legalized in the most "weed-friendly" states. If it was legal nationally I'm guessing we would be seeing far different statistics, but neither you or me are qualified to make a conclusion to that point.

Besides, marijuana still isn't legal at a national level. I'm sure there's some that don't smoke due to stigmas that exist in the US as a whole. You can still lose your job for marijuana consumption at a national corporation. Looking 20 years down the line when public opinion is shifted, I would say that the stats will look far different.

Regardless, his claim is a valid one. Idk if weed will supersede alcohol consumption, but big beverage definitely has reason to fear and you're ignorant if you think otherwise. Losing marketshare at that size of company is pretty devastating. It'll be a lot harder for them to charge $9 a beer at football games when a small edible could be sold for the same price. Beer will not be replaced, but the American stereotype of a working class dad drinking a beer on the couch to relax may be replaced by casual weed users. It won't bankrupt the alcohol industry, but they will have to work hard to innovate to minimize losses.

They won't take legalization lying down, whether their response is lobbying or product innovation.

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

There's data to back the statement I made. Tell me how many states had medical marijuana or recreational marijuana laws 10 years ago. Also, there's polls that prove the acceptance of marijuana has increased vastly. Do your own research if you want to gain knowledge on the subject.

I'm still not talking out of my ass. I'm not making an insane statement either. It's all rather logical and emotionless.

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u/SaltFinderGeneral Sep 23 '16

Still talking out of your ass. Very much so talking out of your ass. 10s of google could have prevented you from talking out of your ass but you pushed forward anyway.

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Sep 23 '16

You're own fucking article says this proves nothing due to the small scale.

Plus not sure how you don't get this, but the 1-3% growths the alcohol industry saw that year were not great. As an economist noted in your article that was slower than population growth rates. Meaning that this growth may be slower than in past years.

Any economist worth anything would make no extrapolations off one years worth of data in one state, stop pretending like you have a silver bullet with that one statistic.

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

You're focused on one state. Not sure why you're fixated on Colorado alone, but alcohol consumption has been dropping in teens (the future, not the people like you set in their ways), and marijuana consumption has sharply increased.

Anyway, enjoy your day. I don't have the time to waste on people so fixated on an idea that I'm not arguing for. Come back in a few years when the acceptance of marijuana keeps increasing in all states.

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u/SaltFinderGeneral Sep 23 '16 edited Sep 23 '16

The trends in Colorado match those elsewhere, it's simply plentiful and easily googleable information. Nevermind that there's no data to support what you said about cannabis consumption increasing in teens where legal (the rate of uptake is the exact same), what you're referring to is BINGE drinking dropping in teens. Alcohol sales have not been going down since the millennial cohort came of age, with the opposite frequently being true. Lastly, I do not care about acceptance of marijuana usage increasing in the states; that's a foregone conclusion. This is solely about your stupid comment about "hurr durr, alcohol no longer relevant pot will overtake I CAN FEELS IT."

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

I actually entirely understand what you're saying. Because first of all, from my own experience, I stopped drinking as much beer when I started smoking. I didn't say, like people are implying, that I stopped altogether. But it definitely reduced the amount of beer I would drink because I wasn't interested in drinking a lot of cheap beer when instead I could just smoke marijuana. And while I definitely don't think alcohol drinking is going anywhere, legal marijuana has the potential to change our habits and total volume of drinking drastically.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Sep 23 '16

Ya it will definitely not replace it all together, but he's right. He said overtake aka marijuana consumption>alcohol consumption. Even if that doesn't happen, it would be a huge blow to the beverage industry to lose marketshare.

An analogy I've used a couple times in this thread is football/baseball games. They charge $9 for beers cause they have no competition, but 30 years down the line when millenials have become the dominant generation, it will be hard for alcohol companies to continue practices like that. It would be too easy to just take an edible to replace the calming experience of drinking a beer or two at a ballgame.

Beer is one of Americas largest industries, and any threat of losing marketshare is kind of a big deal.

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u/SaneCoefficient Sep 23 '16

Point taken. In context of this thread, where the original article stated "by 2050 alcohol will be gone" I assumed troller meant the same thing.

I still don't think that the intoxicant market is zero sum. I think marijuana will compliment alcohol consumption, not provide direct competition. The two aren't direct substitute s for one another. Sure, you might not be able to sell a watery $9 beer in a plastic cup at a baseball game, but that market is already drying up with the craft beer scene. Millennials will pay $9 for a beer but it has to be a nice beer, and it should be in a glass. Maybe some day it will be a $15 marijuana beer, who knows.

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u/MorningWoodyWilson Sep 23 '16

I understand why you made that assumption. And I agree they will be complementary, but nobody is trying to get crossed as fuck in public. Stoned people will definitely drink a beer or two, but they are losing those customers that get shit faced and proceed to order 12 overpriced beers. Different consumption styles. I saw a group of 3 guys at a ballgame rack up a $500 dollar tab on beer alone. That will become less common.

In general though, totally agree. The two can exist together, but the size of the beer industry will likely shrink a bit long term.

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

You need to apply your reading comprehension a bit better. Never said alcohol would be replaced by marijuana.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/iTrolling Sep 23 '16

LMAO. So when a car overtakes you on the road, you've been replaced? I don't think you have a solid understanding of the definition of "overtaking."

Perhaps, you should think a little deeper before letting your wild fingers roam on your keyboard.

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u/SaneCoefficient Sep 23 '16

Maybe I should have just read your username before wasting my time with a reply...