Boozy Britain wary of 'anti-hangover pill'

A controversial U.S. anti-hangover drug hit the shelves in Britain Wednesday, as experts warned it could help fuel the national passion for binge drinking.

RU-21, named after the legal drinking age in the United States, was launched less than a month after Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was determined binge drinking should not become a "new British disease."

"We have got a problem, and taking a tablet doesn't alter the fact that people could be doing themselves harm, whether they feel it or not," said David Poley of the Portman Group, which promotes safe drinking on behalf of the drinks industry.

The pill, said to have been developed by the Soviet KGB so its spies could out-drink enemy agents, works by inhibiting the body's production of the toxin acetaldehyde.

Critics say that by masking the after-effects, RU-21 could prevent heavy drinkers from recognizing their problem with alcohol abuse.

But Derry Kenneally, managing director of RU-21 Ltd, which markets the pill in Britain on behalf of U.S.-based Spirit Sciences, dismissed the criticism. "Alcohol abuse is a complex issue related to the effect of alcohol itself, and not the effects of a dietary supplement," he said.

Russian studies last month showed that by suppressing the production of acetaldehyde, the pill could protect against alcohol-related diseases, including cancers and liver cirrhosis.

RU-21's promotional material painstakingly avoids claiming the pill will prevent hangovers - calling it a "dietary supplement for consumers of alcohol" to circumvent UK health regulations - but its international reputation is already well established.

Last month, Blair warned that heavy weekend drinking was a "clear and growing problem" in the UK.

Official figures released in April showed alcohol accounted for about half of all violent crime in Britain, with up to 70 percent of emergency hospital admissions at peak times due to excessive drinking.

"Our national characteristic is as binge drinkers, which we do far more than our European neighbors," said a spokeswoman for Alcohol Concern. "In that way, we're much more like the Scandinavians than the southern Europeans."