New Handy Sensor to Detect Date Rape Drugs in Drinks

Israeli scientists say that they have developed a sensor that can accurately detect whether a drink has been spiked with date rape drugs, say reports.

Professor Fernando Patolsky and Doctor Michael Ioffe of Tel Aviv University's school of chemistry, say that the sensor, which could resemble a straw or a stirrer in the final production, can be dipped in the drink to determine whether the beverage has been spiked.

The device sucks up a tiny drop of the drink and puts it in contact with the patented chemical formula devised by Patolsky and Ioffe.

"It samples a very small volume of the drink and mixes it with a testing solution that causes a chemical reaction that makes the solution cloudy or colored, depending on the drug," said Fernando Patolsky.

The test results will be easy to read as there will be no need to hold the strip up to the light.

"We haven't decided how it will let you know," said Ioffe. "Maybe it will just light up, or a part of it will rotate or maybe it will send a signal to your cell phone because you want to be discreet about it," said Ioffe, according to NY Daily News.

The sensor currently detects the two most common date rape drugs, GHB (gamma-hydrobuxybutyric acid) and ketamine. However, the scientists hope to add Rohypnal, also known as "roofies" to the list within the year.

The researchers randomly selected 50 drinks from a series of cocktails and blind tested them with a developed solution. They say the detection was 100 percent accurate.

Patolsky and Ioffe acknowledge that ensuring a fast, affordable and reliable product is not easy. However, they feel that preventing date rape is very necessary. The sensor should cost less than a drink and could be used multiple times, said Patolsky. Patolsky hopes that the detector will be sold across bars and pharmacies.

The team is seeking financial backing so that they can bring the first batch of sensors to the market in less than a year and a half.

This is not the first time that sensors for date rape drugs were invented. According to the New Scientist, British company SureScreen Diagnostics in 2001 introduced the Dipitin, a strip that could be dipped into a drink to detect the presence of Rohypnol but not GHB. Then in 2004, another British company introduced the drink detector, which also supposedly revealed the presence of "roofies" in a beverage, and in 2006, Nebraska chemist Andrea Holms was also reportedly working on developing a "roofie" detector, reports the Huffington Post.

However, date rape drug detectors are not very reliable because those who spike drinks usually figure out ways to get around the tests, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson told AP in 2002, added the report.

Date rape drug refers to a drug that can be used to assist in the execution of a sexual assault. They may have sedative, hypnotic, dissociative, or amnesiac effects, and can be added to a food or drink without the victim's knowledge. Some popular date rape drugs are GHB and benzodiazepines, such as flunitrazepam (rohypnol or roofies).

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, an estimated one in six women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, 73 percent of which know their assailants. Data from the U.S. Department of Justice reports that in 2007, nearly 200,000 women were raped in the United States using date rape drugs, though only 16 percent reported the incident, stated HealthNews.