There are many initiatives occurring to help victims survive rape, and preventing date rape in the first place. A little anecdote, one night at a party, suspecting her drink has been drugged, a woman surreptitiously dips a painted fingernail into the drink. It changes color, proving her hunch was correct. The story may be hypothetical, but the nail polish is not. This spring, a group of four students at North Carolina State University announced they had developed such a product—one that changes color when it encounters drugs like Rohypnol (also known as roofies), Xanax, and GHB, which are commonly used to facilitate rape. They named the company Undercover Colors, and claim to be The First Fashion Company Empowering Women to Prevent Sexual Assault.
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Color-changing nail polish isn’t the only product designed to detect drugs that are slipped into a person’s drink. An Israeli team working at Tel Aviv University has proposed a color-changing swizzle stick that you could use to stir your drink and would indicate if GHB, Rohypnol, or ketamine were present. While the swizzle stick and nail polish both show promise, the only product that is currently available is a coaster by a Tallahassee, Florida, company called Drink Safe Technologies. The coaster, says company president and owner Lance Norris, banks on the fact that most of us slosh and spill our drinks. Place this coaster under your drink and the test strips will turn from green to blue in the presence of GHB or pink to blue in the presence of ketamine. Not one to spill your drink? You can easily drip some liquid on the coaster with a finger or a straw. As Norris sees it, the coaster has several advantages over nail polish and swizzle …show more content…
Detecting spiked drinks is one step, but a lasting reduction in rape means changing everyone’s attitudes on the subject. “A change in policy alone won’t stop rape,” Foubert says, pointing out that the law prohibits underage drinking, but that doesn’t stop most college students. Berkowitz agrees. “Think of how our attitude changed towards drinking and driving over the past few decades,” he says. “We need to use the same thinking and methods for sexual assault.” Changing the way, we think about rape, victims of the crime, and who commits it and how will take time. Whether or not gadgets like color-changing nail polishes and test-strip coasters will do much to prevent sexual assault remains to be seen, and it may be even harder to prove. But they may help in a different way. “They get people talking about rape,” Norris says. And that might be the first step towards prevention. It’s a good first step, Kendra agrees, but it can’t stop there. If colleges are going to work to prevent rape, it can’t be just a discussion with women about spiked drinks. Not only do universities and other organizations need to include men and women in this dialogue, they also need to make resources available to people who are sexually assaulted. “We have to have a full circle discussion about rape, and not just prevention,” she says. Date rape and
Color-changing nail polish isn’t the only product designed to detect drugs that are slipped into a person’s drink. An Israeli team working at Tel Aviv University has proposed a color-changing swizzle stick that you could use to stir your drink and would indicate if GHB, Rohypnol, or ketamine were present. While the swizzle stick and nail polish both show promise, the only product that is currently available is a coaster by a Tallahassee, Florida, company called Drink Safe Technologies. The coaster, says company president and owner Lance Norris, banks on the fact that most of us slosh and spill our drinks. Place this coaster under your drink and the test strips will turn from green to blue in the presence of GHB or pink to blue in the presence of ketamine. Not one to spill your drink? You can easily drip some liquid on the coaster with a finger or a straw. As Norris sees it, the coaster has several advantages over nail polish and swizzle …show more content…
Detecting spiked drinks is one step, but a lasting reduction in rape means changing everyone’s attitudes on the subject. “A change in policy alone won’t stop rape,” Foubert says, pointing out that the law prohibits underage drinking, but that doesn’t stop most college students. Berkowitz agrees. “Think of how our attitude changed towards drinking and driving over the past few decades,” he says. “We need to use the same thinking and methods for sexual assault.” Changing the way, we think about rape, victims of the crime, and who commits it and how will take time. Whether or not gadgets like color-changing nail polishes and test-strip coasters will do much to prevent sexual assault remains to be seen, and it may be even harder to prove. But they may help in a different way. “They get people talking about rape,” Norris says. And that might be the first step towards prevention. It’s a good first step, Kendra agrees, but it can’t stop there. If colleges are going to work to prevent rape, it can’t be just a discussion with women about spiked drinks. Not only do universities and other organizations need to include men and women in this dialogue, they also need to make resources available to people who are sexually assaulted. “We have to have a full circle discussion about rape, and not just prevention,” she says. Date rape and