Date-Rape Drug Detecting Cups And Straws Developed By Startup DrinkSavvy
Partiers may soon find a new ally guarding against against odorless, tasteless date-rape drugs -- their own cups and straws.
DrinkSavvy, a startup company in Massachusetts, plans to begin producing drinkware next month that will alert you if any of those chemicals are placed in your beverage, reports The Verge.
The plastic cups and straws change color if a drink contains GHB, Rohypnol or Ketamine -- three drugs commonly used to spike beverages.
Founded by former engineering student Michael Abramson, the company got its start with the help of a highly successful Indiegogo campaign. DrinkSavvy raised more than its goal of $50,000, allowing the company to create the drinkware line of straws and 16-ounce plastic cups.
In the presence of the chemicals, the cups show red stripes and the straws turn from clear to red.
Abramson, a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, was the victim of a "roofied" beverage one night while out at a Boston nightclub. Rohypnol was slipped into his drink and he woke up the next morning on his apartment stairs. That incident led him to begin a collaboration with chemistry and biochemistry researchers at his university to develop a way to make the date-rape drugs visible.
The company is making the products available free to rape crisis centers. Abramson also has plans to hopefully get bars, clubs and even colleges to use the drinkware as part of the fight against drug-facilitated sexual assaults.
DrinkSavvy has plans to launch an even more expanded line of products to the public by 2014.
Watch Michael Abramson explain the details of DrinkSavvy's drinkware in the video below:
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