Synthacoke? Synthaweed?

[F. King Daniel]

Okay so there's synthahol, the non-addictive alcohol substitute whose effects can be dismissed. But how far does syntha-stuff go? Replicating lines of synthacoke to wake up in the morning before an early shift, hitting the synthabong to mellow out after a narrow escape from the Borg...

What's in those "stimulants" McCoy and Beverly pump everyone with when they're having one of those "if I sleep I die" episodes?

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure stimulants would really have recreational value in the bold new world of Trek, where one can get one's uppers from VR fantasies and then enjoy those in a more relaxed fashion by popping downers only. Or are the customers sharply divided into the naturist-health-yoga freaks who merely jump from skyscrapers in their pajamas while wrestling an anaconda, and the chemicalist-totalist connoiseurs who additionally ingest synthacoke first?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Michael]

I'm not even sure I ever really understood how synthehol was supposed to work. It's not like alcohol free beverages today with no intoxicating effect at all, correct? But if it is intoxicating, what's the difference to regular alcohol? Can you just shake off its effects? Or is it just less damaging for the human body? Also, is synthehol one particular brand/taste of beverage or does it come in varieties, like synthehol-beer, synthehol-wine or synthehol-whiskey?

 

[Timo]

The scant facts on this come from "Relics", "Timeless" and "Someone To Watch Over Me". In the first, Data tells Scotty the "intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed". So it supposedly has some, but either one can shake them off at will, becoming insta-sober (which means Quark can sell ten glasses to someone only wanting one, by scaring him to sobriety again and again) - or then people tend to dismiss them with "Oh, sure, it gets me drunk, but it's a healthy kind of drunk"...

In the second, Seven of Nine becomes drunk from synthehol, that is, she gets blurred vision and trouble with balance, which surprisres her, but isn't declared outright atypical by the EMH. In the third, Tom Paris is supposed to get drunk, but claims he's sober; a visiting alien isn't supposed to, but is drunk nevertheless, due to his weird biology, and this time the EMH is a tad more worried than with Seven.

So the evidence really is inconclusive, but vaguely suggests the point is to get drunk in a healthy, nonconsequential way, and that the traditional sort of drunk is the one with consequences.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Orphalesion]

So the evidence really is inconclusive, but vaguely suggests the point is to get drunk in a healthy, nonconsequential way, and that the traditional sort of drunk is the one with consequences.

One of the most important questions to ask here is whether synthehol would also prevent someone from being a violent drunk.

Also, is synthehol one particular brand/taste of beverage or does it come in varieties, like synthehol-beer, synthehol-wine or synthehol-whiskey?

To me it was always pretty clear that (unless stated otherwise) all the "alcoholic" beverages they drink in TNG and later are synthehol, and since they drink a wide variety during the shows, including that cocktail Data mixed for Troi, it's seems to me "synthehol" is just a designation for a wide variety of drinks that simulate alcoholic ones.
They probably whine about it "not tasting right", though, just like they yammer about replicated food.

 

[E-DUB]

I think that with synthehol you can sit down with your friends, knock a few back, feel a pleasant buzz, but when the red alert klaxon sounds, you're good to go.

 

[XCV330]

What's in those "stimulants" McCoy and Beverly pump everyone with when they're having one of those "if I sleep I die" episodes?

synthspresso

 

[Kor]

I've been saying for a long time that in a high-tech Trekkian future that is much more socially liberal and open about all sorts of things, there should be a whole range of designer recreational psychoactive substances (or perhaps electronic devices with similar effect) that have been developed and refined to a high degree for pleasurable experiences, but at the same time engineered specifically to have little to no negative physical or psychological side effects, and to not be addictive at all.

So some Starfleet officers will get back to their quarters at the end of their shift and choose to relax with a good book and a glass of wine. Others will kick back, close their eyes and listen to some classical music or jazz (since those are apparently the only genres that exist in the future). And still others will spend a couple of hours exploring a radically altered state of consciousness.

Kor

 

[JesterFace]

A Finnish article mentioned something like this many years ago: Alcohol exists in the future but without annoying side effects. I always thought that by side effects the article meant there are no hangovers. Does that mean you can get drunk or not? Is intoxication a side effect and people drink alcohol just for the taste?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hamalki drink alcohol just for the taste. They get high by eating graphite. (Diane Duane, The Wounded Sky)

 

[shapeshifter]

Synthacordrazine

 

[UssGlenn]

One of the most important questions to ask here is whether synthehol would also prevent someone from being a violent drunk.

Probably. I expect that adrenaline is a major element of dismissing the effect, so once you get angry you sober up quickly. Of course, now you are still angry and have your full hand eye coordination back...

 

[NCC-73515]

I think synthehol has the same mood altering effects, but doesn't harm the liver or any other organs. You can basically binge synthehol until your stomach can't hold it anymore, and won't have any long-lasting adverse effects. Scotty got a hangover from drinking aldebaran whisky, or whatever it was, with real alcohol. It would make sense that they also developed non-toxic versions of other drugs.

 

[Kor]

I'm not even sure I ever really understood how synthehol was supposed to work. It's not like alcohol free beverages today with no intoxicating effect at all, correct? But if it is intoxicating, what's the difference to regular alcohol? Can you just shake off its effects? Or is it just less damaging for the human body? Also, is synthehol one particular brand/taste of beverage or does it come in varieties, like synthehol-beer, synthehol-wine or synthehol-whiskey?

Apparently, synthehol wasn't supposed to cause debilitating intoxication in most species. Timo quoted Data's description in "Relics." To add to that, in TNG "Up the Long Ladder," Worf makes a remark about "all of the deleterious effects" of real alcohol, in contrast to synthehol. And TNG "Family" has this exchange:
ROBERT: Careful. You're not used to drinking the real thing. This synthehol never leaves you out of control, is that so?
PICARD: That's so.

In VOY "Someone to Watch Over Me," the Kadi ambassador Tomin gets quite drunk and passes out from synthehol.
NEELIX: I thought synthehol wasn't supposed to have this effect on people.
EMH: Most people. The enzymes that break down synthehol aren't present in his bloodstream.

Also, Timo mentioned the effects of synthehol on Seven of Nine. Apparently her Borg enhancements made her body process the stuff differently than other humans. In "Body and Soul," the Doctor in Seven's body said, "Seven's unique physiology is... unique. It doesn't react well to synthehol."

Roddenberry said that synthehol as a general substance was invented by the Ferengi. But this was never stated in any episodes. It is used in a variety of beverages, such as the fake Scotch served to Scotty in TNG "Relics," "a light ale of Earth origin" in TNG "Hollow Pursuits," and the champagne that Seven of Nine drank in VOY "Timeless."

And then there was a beer analog called "synthale" which appeared or was mentioned several times in DS9. O'Brien preferred the "extra stout" type. Presumably, synthale is ale produced with synthehol instead of real alcohol, but that is never explicitly stated in any dialog. In "Emissary," Quark said that the Bajoran version of synthale was "dreadful."

Kor

 

[Herbert]

SynthaTrekBBS

The next day you don't remember all the hair-brained speculations and theories.

 

[Unicron]

Hamalki drink alcohol just for the taste. They get high by eating graphite. (Diane Duane, The Wounded Sky)

Harry Harrison's 1973 novel Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (which is an affectionate parody of space operas and traditional pulp sci-fi, with several homages to other authors included) has a tree-like species called the Garnishee. They resemble walking trunks with four legs, with one foot containing their brain, and a row of tentacles on their top where foliage might normally be (for grasping objects). The Garnishee are omnivores with a diet not too unlike that of humans, but they also enjoy eating glass bottles because that creates an intoxicating effect for them.

 

[Orphalesion]

Probably. I expect that adrenaline is a major element of dismissing the effect, so once you get angry you sober up quickly. Of course, now you are still angry and have your full hand eye coordination back...

Now personally I've never been drunk. But wouldn't that situation been somewhat similar to waking up form a dream where something made you feel anger.
I could picture the person instantly realizing that it was just intoxication that made them angry and dismissing it as their rational side takes hold again.

I mean the closest thing I can compare it to in my own experience is being hangry. Even reminding myself that I'm just grouchy because of low blood sugar makes it possible for me to control the emotion.

 

[Timo]

I'd imagine getting angry would be one of those situations where your instinct, no matter how blurred, would be to desire better control, for a deadlier swing of that fist or a sharper tongue - at which point synthahol would apparently oblige and let you "dismiss" the lack of control.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Qonundrum]

Synthahol had an episode pawning it off as "all the taste but none of the ill effects" or something like that. It's a bit throwaway, as much as eating a large steak but without clogging your arteries afterward is, I'd guess. Or any substance... just think of all the school kids who can now eat all those glue sticks and paste without parents having to worry...

The same could be attributed to cocaine, marijuana, and so on... but this begs questions of how those substances are supposed to smell or taste to begin with, and if that's why a person is smelling/tasting them rather than waiting for the later result of said snorting/eating to kick in. At least with synthahol, and drinking fermented bread/vegetable matter, there is a directly associated taste to savor or swill and long before the unwanted effects kick in. So this may explain marijuana in the same way any old flaming tobacco leaf might, since there's apparently a smell about it that some people find appealing. Isn't it cheaper just to set up a hammock inside a cigar store and take a soothing nap? If not the coffee and/or cleaning product aisle in a supermarket and get a few nice deep whiffs in? Or the gas station for those inclined... synthagasahol?

 

[Bork359]

brb snorting synthamphatamine on the holdeck with Leonardo da Vinci