The Loaded Canapes

A Helsinki housewife decided that her husband's stag party would be just the place to try out Antabus tablets, which are intended to make alcohol distasteful to alcoholics (TIME, Dec. 6). She put some, in powdered form, in the party's smorgas, popular with Finns as well as Swedes. The results were sensational. Within 10 to 45 minutes, whether they had drunk beer, wine or hard liquor, the guests had splitting headaches and were vomiting. Their blood pressure and pulse rate shot up. It became the worst lost weekend any of them had ever known; twelve landed in a hospital; several almost died.

By the time the story had hit the newspapers, Finland was considering restrictions on the sale of Antabus, which is sold over the druggist's counter, originally as a remedy for intestinal worms and the itch (scabies). Since its anti-alcoholism qualities were discovered, Sweden has required a doctor's prescription for its Swedish equivalent, Abstinyl, to discourage dangerous experimenting by pranksters and well-meaning wives. Dr. Stig Hammergen has warned the Stockholm Woman's Medical Society that a mixture of Abstinyl and alcohol can kill people with weak hearts.

For the first time in years, Swedish homes for alcoholics this year granted a week-long Christmas furlough for some inmates. They were packed off with Abstinyl tablets in their pockets for self-treatment. Dosage must be carefully regulated by a doctor; the amount needed varies with the patient. Sweden's Temperance Control Department reports best results from doses averaging four half-gram tablets the first day, two the next two days, one tablet a day until all desire for alcohol is lost.

Neither Antabus nor Abstinyl is yet on sale in the U.S.; both may be soon. A salesman for Antabus is expected this month, for Abstinyl "as soon as home-market needs are satisfied, probably in two months." Once the drugs arrive, the U.S. will have to tackle regulation; drinkers with officious wives and jokester friends could pray that the rules will be tight.

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