pepp. looks exciting., page-9

Here is the ACA text
What alarms me are the statements near the bottom, that the pill doesn't drop the alcohol level at all! They seem to be saying it is some sort of smoke and mirrors effect with vitamins. Anyone heard otherwise?
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Beat the breath test?
By Elise Mooney
Mon 08/10/07

Imagine a pill that could reverse the effects of alcohol.

A Singapore-based pharmaceutical company believes it has found a way to beat the booze bus and plans to target Australia as a major market.

The so-called 'enzyme-based' product — already available over the internet — promises drinkers “twice the fun... with half the wooziness”

RELATED LINKS

* Australian government alcohol info guide
* Alcohol facts - how much can you really drink safely?
* Australian Alcohol Guidelines
* State and Territory alcohol advice sites

The makers say that if you pop two tablets of the drug, known as ‘Pepp’, you can reduce alcohol levels in your blood by more than 50 percent in just minutes.

They're extraordinary promises from a company — and carry some pretty serious ramifications — but there's only one way to test it and that's on some drinkers.

We asked average social drinkers Daniel and Fenella to each pop two pills at the beginning and end of a one-hour drinking session.

Meanwhile, another two volunteers, Sophie and Samuel, will drink pill-free. All four subjects have tested zero alcohol before they started on our drinks.

Mike Wheeldon from Integrity Sampling will breath test the four students ten, then forty minutes, after they finish drinking equal amounts of alcohol.

After our drinking session, Daniel pops his Pepp pill and is then tested ten minutes after drinking. He blows .114 — but after 40 minutes, he drops to .081.

Samuel — not trialling the pill — initially blows .075, then .052.

"According to our results, the young man who was on the Pepp pill had his alcohol reading drop quicker than Samuel, who didn't take the pill," Mike says.

Fenella, also testing the tablet , blows .183 then drops to .143 after 40 minutes.

Sophie, who is also pill free, blows .152 after ten minutes — then rises to .156.

What’s really interesting is there is no scientific basis for the impressive results shown by taking Pepp.

Dr Morris O'Dell, from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, says drinkers taking these pills will only be fooling themselves.

"The concerns are that some young people start using these tablets and believe that they maybe under .05 and then get behind the wheel of a car," says Dr O’Dell.

"I think it gives people a false sense of security and in the worst case, it could lead to people drinking more than they should and then taking this stuff and thinking they are able to drive."

Dr O’Dell tells us what is really inside a Pepp pill.

“Well there are some vitamins and minerals in here and there are some flavouring agents,” he begins.

"There is some nutritional supplements and so on, but there is nothing here that is an actual drug or an actual compound that is known to have an effect on alcohol metabolism."

So there is no magic elixir. It would appear that the only way to beat the booze bus is to avoid drinking altogether.

Daniel, who tried out the Pepp pill earlier, agrees. “It might give people a false sense that its ok to drive when there really not ok to drive,” he says.