The art and science of flavourology, drinks pairing and other such cobblers is well advanced enough that it should be possible to match alcoholic beverages to medically necessary prescription drugs.

When drugs are flavourless, water- or alcohol soluble, and don't adversely react to moderate alcohol intake, I see no reason why they should not be prescribed and delivered in any alcoholic drink of the patient's choice.

When the drug has a certain taste, or botanical or drug-related complications, then the boffins in the white coats swing into action, to work out what drink best matches the drug in question. Would the tart taste of the drug, and its fragile active ingredients, be best matched with a vintage champagne, a cheap cremant de Loire, or would it be better to look at fine Belgian weißbier?

Clearly extensive pre-clinical and clinical trials are required, and the bigger the control group the better.
-- pocmloc, Mar 06 2020

// Clearly extensive pre-clinical and clinical trials are required, and the bigger the control group the better. //

We recommend a wide-ranging programme of post-launch monitoring to ensure that the results in practice (for a large sample) are consistent with any clinical and pilot studies.

Participants should of course be suitably remunerated for their time, effort and inconvenience.

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Mar 06 2020


I am genetically lucky - I am the side effects poster boy.

If only one in a hundred gets a given side effect, you can bet money I'll be that one.

I get a cough, itchy and confused just walking past a pharmacy (that's the chemist's for some of you).

So sign me up ... I'm looking forward to a steady supply of trial samples, and lots of reports to fill out.
-- normzone, Mar 06 2020


Nice, I am sure the alcohol will prove advantageous with certain prescriptions. It is a good time to have a cough at work.
-- wjt, Mar 08 2020


Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I wonder why it hasn't been done.
-- blissmiss, Mar 08 2020


Because medics are sadists, and don't want their victims to derive any pleasure from being ill ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 08 2020


I guess, other than the bad outcomes, most cases the alcohol wouldn't help so much as just muddy the water. Plus, there plenty of other relieving potions in the draw, each with their own iillings. Really, it's getting the time to combine the cocktails and find the really good ones. Or being pointed at by computer computation.

Probably not unlike finding weird food combinations.
-- wjt, Mar 10 2020


Perhaps the logical solution is to allow barkeepers to dispense medications as well as drinks ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 10 2020


It makes sense to me, as long as he's a pharmacist.
-- blissmiss, Mar 10 2020


Maybe medical colleges could also issue alcohol trading licenses upon graduation. That way all certified pharmacists would be able to also trade as a pub, without needing any other qualifications. That would increase the chances of this idea becoming mainstream, as well as increasing the number of pubs.
-- pocmloc, Mar 10 2020


^Genius. You should post that.
-- 8th of 7, Mar 10 2020


I just did, right here! Did you not see it?
-- pocmloc, Mar 10 2020


You should post it as an independent hb idea, not just as an annotation to this one.
-- 8th of 7, Mar 10 2020


But it's an integral part of this idea!

There is a philosophical question here about what is the definition of an idea, and whether a sub-idea deserves posting itself separately or whether it is best considered as an appendage to its superior idea.
-- pocmloc, Mar 10 2020


//Maybe medical colleges could also issue alcohol trading licenses upon graduation//

The idea goes further with the thought that licenses issued have a hierarchy and lower ones are included as a matter of fact.

The other side of a license is, does a Doctor make a good bar tender?
-- wjt, Mar 12 2020


Aren't medicines supposed to taste horrible to deter over dosing.
-- xenzag, Mar 12 2020


// Aren't medicines supposed to taste horrible to deter over dosing. //

Which brings us to another issue: if you are served, say, medicinal cocktail #3, the Percocet rum and coke, what's to keep you from having several per sitting and ODing?
-- whatrock, Mar 12 2020


[whatrock], that actually sounds pretty damn good right about now.
-- blissmiss, Mar 12 2020


A benadryl crushed up into a shot of whiskey will certainly make you fall asleep pretty quickly.
-- nomocrow, Mar 12 2020


// what's to keep you from having several per sitting? //

Cardiac arrest ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 12 2020


Had to go down quite a few to find an idea here I didn't bun.

I'll buunnnnnn.... this one. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 02 2023


^^ a good choice. Have another Percocet rum and coke. We keep the bottle nearby.
-- whatrock, Mar 07 2023


Nay, the sugar in the coke is not good for you on a regular basis, and the coke is hard on your stomach.

Now, anejo tequila and percocet, that's a different story.
-- normzone, Mar 10 2023


In the US drugs are deliberately made more toxic to deter overdose: They add Tylenol to most opioids for this purpose. Thousands die every year because of this evil policy.
-- Voice, Mar 11 2023


It does that, but there's a reason it's impossible to buy many OTC medicines in the US without Tylenol coming with them.
-- Voice, Mar 11 2023


Later I may have the time to list medicines for you but for now I'll leave that aside.

//is there a bigger evil//

Nope, just "let's stop people from abusing drugs by making drugs poisonous" More incompetence than evil, really. But Chairman Mao proved you can be both evil and incompetent and still kill more people through the latter. Come to think of it a lot of world leaders have proved that.
-- Voice, Mar 11 2023


An emetogenic I can understand, if not completely approve of. Live damage is a whole different animal.
-- Voice, Mar 12 2023


I singled out Tylenol because it's so common, deadly in the doses people take to get high, and unnecessary to add.
-- Voice, Mar 12 2023


Grape soda with codeine cough syrup is quite popular. AKA lean, purple drank, etc. There's established precedent.
-- tatterdemalion, Mar 13 2023


//Clearly extensive pre-clinical and clinical trials are required, and the bigger the control group the better//

Historical note: in early 1800s Upper Canada, the Pharmacist would sell you alcohol, marijuana, opium, morphine, laudanum, cocaine, and heroin, to cure what ailed you and your children (the 'control group').

Every family had marginalia in a cookbook or notebook describing successful combinations; the family Bible records the results of unsuccessful recipes.
-- Sgt Teacup, Mar 26 2024



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