Parents with daughters heading off to college this fall will be relieved to know that the invention of new barware that can detect the presence of illicit drugs in drinks could be available as early as next year.
College campuses continue to be the “hot spot” for the use of date rape drugs, but a bad experience at a Boston bar prompted a young entrepreneur named Michael Abramson to do something about it.
“I went to the bar to get my first drink of the night and not long after that, it started to feel much like my 15th drink,” Abramson told CBS News in Boston.
His drink had been drugged.
The experience inspired him to start DrinkSavvy, Inc., a company that is developing cups, straws and drink stirrers that can detect the presence of predator drugs. Sensing strips in the barware change color when something in a cocktail changes.
According to the Center for Women and Families, drug facilitated rape is quite common, especially on many college campuses across the United States. According to recent studies, alcohol is the number one drug used to facilitate a sexual assault. For rape which takes place on campuses, alcohol is being used in 90 percent of cases.
One of the most popular date rape drug is rohypnol, also known as roofies, which has no taste or odor. Even a small amount can render a victim unconscious within 15 minutes of imbibing it, a state that can last for up to 24 hours. And because the victims are completely unconscious, they can’t remember anything that happened to them.
Abramson new invention could change all that. After working with scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to develop the technology and says it is not expensive.
“The costs will be very competitive with normal drink ware that the clubs and bars are already using so there shouldn’t be any financial disincentive not to really swap out their entire plastic cups straws and glasses for DrinkSavvy straws and glasses.”
The product will be test marketed this fall at a Boston area bar and are expected to be available as early as next year.
If his invention can prevent at least one drug facilitated sexual assault from happening, Abramson says, “I think that would make this an incredible success.”
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