Three high school girls from Florida are getting a ton of accolades for inventing a straw that can detect certain date rape drugs. But their idea is not a new one.
For years, people have been working to commercially scale products that could effectively detect roofies that have been slipped into someone’s drink. DrinkSavvy was the first to test the straws, along with cups, back in 2012; DrinkSafe sells coasters; and Undercover Colors has a drug-detecting nail polish.
Mike Abramson, the guy behind DrinkSavvy, raised more than 50-thousand dollars to bring his product to market, but that seems to have stalled. The latest news on his website reads:
While we know this solution to end DFSA (drug-facilitated sexual assault) is long overdue, we are still developing our product for commercial release and will have them available ASAP!
Now, back to the three high school students: Susana Cappello, Carolina Baigorri and Victoria Roca, who attend Gulliver Preparatory High School in Miami, won a business plan challenge last month with their “Smart Straw” that changes color in the presence of GHB and Ketamine — the most common date rape drugs.
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But like many of the other drug-detecting products before theirs, this is also one of the downfalls of a device that can only detect a small fraction of the number of date rape drugs currently circulating.
The young ladies told “Inside Edition” that they were inspired to create their straw after talking to college students and realizing what a big problem sexual assault is on campus. They plan to market their straws to once they get a patent.
