8 ms·

Straws And Cups That Detect Date Rape Drugs

120 points by duggieawesome 13y ago

bluetidepro 13y ago
> "Boston Man Invents Straws And Cups That Detect Date Rape Drugs" Invents? I thought this has been around for quite awhile now? I remember hearing about things like this years ago. Maybe it was just the idea, and had not yet been actually a physical product though?
- diydsp 13y ago
  heh. it was "new" in Dec 2012 as well. Same inventor: http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw-detects-date-rape-drugs-drinks/w9zDzE3blWz8COnfnWWh8L/story.html http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw-detects... It was also invented by scientists in Tel Aviv in August 2012: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers-design-straw-to-detect-date-rape-drugs/ http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers-de... Apparently also in August 2011 by the same scientists: http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects-drugs/ http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects-drugs/
Nursie 13y ago
1. Awesome invention, straws that detect adulterants and change colour 2. Obviously people do get drugged occasionally, the inventor seems to have had it happen to him 3. Unfortunately there seems to be no real evidence that GHB or ketamine are often used in sexual assaults, and even Rohypnol which has the worst reputation has not often been detected. A straw that could detect a drink that's stronger than you think it is might be more useful, AFAICT the number one date-rape drug is alcohol. (I want to be absolutely clear here, I'm not saying date rape doesn't happen, I'm not saying that some really nasty people don't deliberately get others into pliable states to take advantage of them, but AFAICT the use of drugs in the way the media likes to run scare stories about is very uncommon)
- keevie 13y ago
  None of these "date rape drugs" even come close to comparing to alcohol. It's the original and most effective date rape drug, and no one even really objects to people using it for that purpose. Getting people drunk to get them to sleep with you isn't really /wrong./ Once you start using scary drugs that no one has ever heard of, then wow, that's something we can condemn. Especially since no one we know would ever do such a thing.
  - justinsteele 13y ago
    That's arguable. I think the line between "these friends know each other and have been flirtatious in the past, it's okay that they got drunk one night and hooked up" and "this random person put a date rape drug in that other person's drink so they could take advantage of their state" is extremely large.
    - Nursie 13y ago
      >> "this random person put a date rape drug in that other person's drink so they could take advantage of their state" This is the straw man in the situation though - it's usually someone the victim knows. (edit: I'm not really sure straw man is the right term here...)
      - g4m8i7 13y ago
        Closer to False Dichotomy.
    - ryusage 13y ago
      I think keevie's comment was referring more to a situation in which two strangers meet, one buys many drinks for the other, and then, once very drunk, gets them into bed. If you ask 100 people if that's wrong to do, I'm pretty confident that you're going to get much more conflicting answers than if you ask them about either of your two examples. On the one hand, it's basically what a lot of people just take as the norm. They think that's what you're supposed to do at bars. On the other, it also just happens to be a way to make someone much less resistant to doing things they would never do otherwise.
xsmasher 13y ago
Wonder what the false positive / false negative rate is? Either one could lead to a dangerous situation.
- ukapu 13y ago
  One of those situations is more dangerous than the other, I would say.
doingitwrong 13y ago
If you find yourself going to a venue where you think one of these would be handy, shouldn't you just not go?
- zerovox 13y ago
  It can happen anywhere, it's not just in seedy bars, I've know it to happen(at least here in the UK) in clubs with otherwise good reputations.
  - gknoy 13y ago
    That makes sense, for the same reason that pickpockets rarely look like seedy hoodlum types, and instead blend in with the crowd.
- ultramundane828 13y ago
  That's where I think this product can't really be considered a consumer product. It would be much more useful for businesses. At first glance, the same criticism holds for a bar that has these ("you think your patrons are rapists?" or "that place is so bad it needs those cups" spring to mind). But I feel like that's just a marketing challenge. Instead, I think the company selling the cups could market them with focus on the avoidance of sexual assault and make their customers (bars/clubs) look like community leaders. Maybe they'll even have a cool little symbol to plaster beneath the neon signs. I have a hunch that that symbol could sway more customers than the availability of Bud Light. Just some of my thoughts.
- dpeck 13y ago
  You'd be surprised. I'm fairly sure I was drugged one night out at a club in London while out with coworkers. Fairly upscale place, very rough experience.
- VLM 13y ago
  No, I think the rest of civilization should be warped around preserving "bar culture" and our best minds should be eternally in a cat and mouse game of straw maker vs underground organic chemist. (Note I was kidding) Going out drinking is no longer a sane activity. So don't.
incision 13y ago
Clubs and bars tend to be dark and the patrons inebriated. I have to imagine that those factors would go an awful long way toward nullifying any benefit of this stuff. Also, if the technology involved is anything like the color-changing "field test" kits that cops use, false positives will be a problem. An associate of mine was booked for "heroin possession" when an overzealous cop decided to test his aspirin during a traffic stop - he was released the instant he got a hold of a lawyer.
eggbrain 13y ago
This is a great invention that can help prevent abuse, but I'm worried bars won't buy in for a few reasons: 1) I assume the cups have to be disposable, as the strips probably don't work multiple times. Most bars I've been to don't use disposable cups. 2) Even if they did, it has to be cost effective for the bar to consider using them. If 1000 cups is $250 (0.25/cup) and you can get 10,000 normal cups for that price, that's going to probably factor into their decision. 3) The bar might be worried that having these cups might reflect poorly on their reputation. I can imagine people saying to themselves "Why is the bar using special glasses that detect date rape? Is date rape a problem at this bar?" When you introduce an item like this it might lead to speculation that there is a problem when really you're trying to be safe. It's like if you installed a metal detector at a club and put bars on the windows -- you might be doing it just to be safe, but your patrons might think "do things happen here that warrant security precautions like this"?
- hfsktr 13y ago
  On number 3, people might think the opposite too. "We can go here and not have to worry!" I wonder how that would factor into how much someone drinks "Since there are no drugs to worry about, the people must be trustworthy enough to get blackout drunk around!"
andrewhillman 13y ago
These drugs are without consistent ingredients and are always changing. He will need to stay ontop of drug trends and the constant iteration will side track the project. His biggest challenge will be scoring the actual drug to test the sensors... The chances that he will be able to produce these cups for an amount equal to the current cost of a regular plastic cup is doubtful. Etch-it cups can't even come close to the price of a regular plastic cup so how can these sensor cups be priced to attract bulk orders from bars and clubs? My guess is that he is banking that the patent has value to cup manufacturers but the cup manufacturers probably don't want to hire a slew of scientist for R&D. They just want to make and sell cups.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
asdasf 13y ago
Why does this frequently "invented" useless item keep getting press every time it is "invented" for the dozenth time? These are really misguided devices, that give people a false sense of safety (it is even labeled "safe" on the non-spiked drink) when alcohol is far and away the most used and most dangerous date rape drug.
- jwoah12 13y ago
  You could always invent your own strip that detects alcohol and displays UNSAFE. That way people will be reminded before they drink their vodka tonic that it contains alcohol.
  - asdasf 13y ago
    The point was not that we need to detect alcohol. The point was that these things are counter productive to the goal of preventing date rape.
    - jwoah12 13y ago
      Sorry, I was being sarcastic. The goal of these things is to prevent date rape by someone unsuspectingly taking particular drugs. There's not much you are going to be able to invent if your goal is to stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol.
      - asdasf 13y ago
        But you just repeated the same thing. Again, I am not suggesting "stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol" should be a goal. I am saying these devices are harmful. They have the opposite effect from what is intended. They create a false sense of security in regards to the problem, convincing people that as long as their drink hasn't been spiked they are fine. But 99% of date rapes involving drugs aren't from drink spiking, they are just from drinking.
        13y ago
adamio 13y ago
Invent me a cup that tells me if my Diet Coke is actually Regular Coke, then we can talk
- semiprivate 13y ago
  Taste buds?
  - adamio 13y ago
    An indicator with fewer false +/- than taste buds
    - venomsnake 13y ago
      Even coke zero tastes nothing like regular coke. Aspartame has very distinct after taste - almost rotten like.
diminoten 13y ago
Instead of every cup or every straw doing this, some random and unknown percentage would do it. Combined with advertising, it could be an effective deterrent in a place where this is a real problem. People keep mentioning a bar's reputation, but at the end of the day if this is a real problem for your bar, your reputation is already screwed. This seems to me like a very pro-active way of working on fixing an already broken reputation.
newbie12 13y ago
I want a straw that tests for adulterated alcohol-- specifically for a bar serving filtered rubbing alcohol instead of the real stuff.
- NegativeK 13y ago
  15g of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol will kill you. There's a chance, though, that you may be calling low quality ethanol alcohol rubbing alcohol, and I'm just missing it.
celwell 13y ago
It's genius!
Millennium 13y ago
It seems to me that, rather than making straws and drinks that do this, it would be better to see if it could be incorporated into some kind of nail polish that, once dried, could detect this. I suggest nail polish for two reasons. One is that it removes the need to carry specialized tools: once you've done your nails, you can test 10 drinks and leave the bottle at home. Not having to carry a tool is somewhat more convenient, but it also means the tool can't be forgotten, lost, stolen, or tampered with. The other advantage is discretion. It's not difficult, with a setup like this, to test a drink without others knowing what you are doing. It could be argued that people shouldn't mind being tested, but from a pragmatic standpoint, the kind of person who spikes a drink is the kind of person who could very easily become dangerous if they know they're being put to the test. A discreet test, therefore, is a safer test, and since these tests are supposed to be all about safety, it follows that a discreet test is also a better test.
- tinha 13y ago
  The idea is good, but it would be more targeted to women than men.
  - jsymolon 13y ago
    A clear coat will work with both sexes.
venomsnake 13y ago
Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution to have someone trusted who to call from time to time. With everybody having smartphones an gps app that for given period of time sends messages to trusted 3rd party about your location and being able to call if something is out of order is also a solution. Just before going upstairs she just calls to the "warden" and if she is speaking coherent ... do whatever you like. If not - the trusted party can take a cab or signal the police.
- VLM 13y ago
  "Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution" I'm with you on this. Nothing stupider than slapping a technical solution on a social problem and calling it good. Hmm, going out to drink unknown substances out of other peoples cups and letting other people mix potions for you and drinking out of cups people leave laying around unsupervised for others to mess with, is unsafe now, so "open mouth and out comes ridiculous cross between rube goldberg, life magazine predictions from 75 years ago about the future, and star trek technobabble". No, its just an obsolete, dangerous, dumb way to spend your time. You wanna do something stupid, fine, have fun, but don't come crying to me about how us smart people "have" to do something about your dumb decisions. Kinda like free love was cool before HIV. Or going drunk driving was a great idea when you drove your own horse, but really dumb idea after cars. Sorry to break it to all the whiners but like it or not we live in the 2010s so deal with it or suffer. Going out drinking means pretty scary odds of date rape. So unless you're dense as neutronium, don't do it. Before the chorus of how dare I blame the victim, well I have the right to blame them because I'm not an idiot. Going out drinking might have been fun in ye olden daze but its not ye olden daze anymore, its dumb and dangerous and THAT is why I have the right to blame the victim. I didn't get this brilliant knowledge from a reveled religion or a secret sauce, but from incessant whining of journalist reports, any other moron out there should be able to figure out the same thing I figured out, which is not to go out drinking anymore. Too bad for the victim if they're too dumb or lazy to think like the human being they are. Actions do have consequences. I do have genuine pity for like "the first" date rape victims, how could she have possibly known and she'd not to blame. But we've had a lot of journalism since then. Not for some idiot who went out last night with a virtual bullseye painted on their fun parts, knowing fully whats probably about to happen, knowing that when the inevitable happens, they can just blame "society" or maybe blame the "techies for not inventing a cure"... anyone to blame but themselves. There are perfectly good social solutions to this social problem. BYOB. Carry a fashionable hip flask. Strange as it may sound, you can socialize with friends without consuming liquids of any sort (insane concept, huh?). Take up an intoxicant that's safer than alcohol and harder (impossible?) to spike, like weed. "Back when I was a kid" we got totally drunk BEFORE we went out, who wants to repeatedly pay $7 a glass for something I can get drunk on at home for 75 cents/can, especially when you're a poor student. Only get drunk with actual friends at home instead of criminal strangers at a bar who want to take advantage of you. We're all smart here, its not very hard to figure out. These "revolutionary" ideas might negatively impact someones entrenched profitable business model? Tough cookies. Cry me a river. But don't spew random tech all over an outmoded idiotic behavior and call it brilliant. Its just obsolete thrashing about. Wanna suffer? Fine go out and do it. I'm not going to feel any pity when the inevitable happens. Don't worry, people are still going to find the numerous other ways to act stupid and hurt themselves.
JulianMorrison 13y ago
A better solution is to learn the behaviors that rapists use - being pushy and overbearing, not taking no for an answer, cutting out of the herd, stuff like that. If your buddy behaves like that, don't let him get away with it. And it's useless to detect rape drugs because the biggest rape drug is alcohol.
jkoehler 13y ago
- how many cups contain a drug (i.e. 0,1%; 99.9% are drug free)? - is the problem big enough for bars to care about? - do cup producers increase their rev/profit with this cup?
jkoehler 13y ago
- how many cups contain a drug (i.e. 0,1%; 99.9% are drug free)? - is the problem big enough for bars to care about? - do cup producers increase their rev/profit with this cup?
pjscott 13y ago
When the drink isn't drugged, these look just like straws and cups that don't detect drugs. This suggests an obvious attack: swap out the straw or cup for a plain plastic one. (Countermeasure: make the cups and straws look distinctive.)
codebeaker 13y ago
I happen to know (no time to look up the patent number now, sorry) that this is covered by a US, and EU patent. A friend of mine lost more than €30,000 to being sued by a firm that already holds the rights to this. I hope he figures it out before they start trolling him. My friend's “invention” also covered a product on beer-mats and serviettes that would change colour under the same circumstances, unfortunately the patent he was facing down was so broadly written that it covered basically anything that could be used to detect daterape drugs in a drink by indicating it somehow. Surely the patent could have been battled, but he wasn't in the financial position to do so.

120 points by duggieawesome 13y ago

> "Boston Man Invents Straws And Cups That Detect Date Rape Drugs" Invents? I thought this has been around for quite awhile now? I remember hearing about things like this years ago. Maybe it was just the idea, and had not yet been actually a physical product though?

diydsp 13y ago
heh. it was "new" in Dec 2012 as well. Same inventor: http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw-detects-date-rape-drugs-drinks/w9zDzE3blWz8COnfnWWh8L/story.html http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw-detects... It was also invented by scientists in Tel Aviv in August 2012: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers-design-straw-to-detect-date-rape-drugs/ http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers-de... Apparently also in August 2011 by the same scientists: http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects-drugs/ http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects-drugs/

Nursie 13y ago

1. Awesome invention, straws that detect adulterants and change colour 2. Obviously people do get drugged occasionally, the inventor seems to have had it happen to him 3. Unfortunately there seems to be no real evidence that GHB or ketamine are often used in sexual assaults, and even Rohypnol which has the worst reputation has not often been detected. A straw that could detect a drink that's stronger than you think it is might be more useful, AFAICT the number one date-rape drug is alcohol. (I want to be absolutely clear here, I'm not saying date rape doesn't happen, I'm not saying that some really nasty people don't deliberately get others into pliable states to take advantage of them, but AFAICT the use of drugs in the way the media likes to run scare stories about is very uncommon)

keevie 13y ago
None of these "date rape drugs" even come close to comparing to alcohol. It's the original and most effective date rape drug, and no one even really objects to people using it for that purpose. Getting people drunk to get them to sleep with you isn't really /wrong./ Once you start using scary drugs that no one has ever heard of, then wow, that's something we can condemn. Especially since no one we know would ever do such a thing.
- justinsteele 13y ago
  That's arguable. I think the line between "these friends know each other and have been flirtatious in the past, it's okay that they got drunk one night and hooked up" and "this random person put a date rape drug in that other person's drink so they could take advantage of their state" is extremely large.
  - Nursie 13y ago
    >> "this random person put a date rape drug in that other person's drink so they could take advantage of their state" This is the straw man in the situation though - it's usually someone the victim knows. (edit: I'm not really sure straw man is the right term here...)
    - g4m8i7 13y ago
      Closer to False Dichotomy.
  - ryusage 13y ago
    I think keevie's comment was referring more to a situation in which two strangers meet, one buys many drinks for the other, and then, once very drunk, gets them into bed. If you ask 100 people if that's wrong to do, I'm pretty confident that you're going to get much more conflicting answers than if you ask them about either of your two examples. On the one hand, it's basically what a lot of people just take as the norm. They think that's what you're supposed to do at bars. On the other, it also just happens to be a way to make someone much less resistant to doing things they would never do otherwise.

xsmasher 13y ago

Wonder what the false positive / false negative rate is? Either one could lead to a dangerous situation.

ukapu 13y ago
One of those situations is more dangerous than the other, I would say.

doingitwrong 13y ago

If you find yourself going to a venue where you think one of these would be handy, shouldn't you just not go?

zerovox 13y ago
It can happen anywhere, it's not just in seedy bars, I've know it to happen(at least here in the UK) in clubs with otherwise good reputations.
- gknoy 13y ago
  That makes sense, for the same reason that pickpockets rarely look like seedy hoodlum types, and instead blend in with the crowd.
ultramundane828 13y ago
That's where I think this product can't really be considered a consumer product. It would be much more useful for businesses. At first glance, the same criticism holds for a bar that has these ("you think your patrons are rapists?" or "that place is so bad it needs those cups" spring to mind). But I feel like that's just a marketing challenge. Instead, I think the company selling the cups could market them with focus on the avoidance of sexual assault and make their customers (bars/clubs) look like community leaders. Maybe they'll even have a cool little symbol to plaster beneath the neon signs. I have a hunch that that symbol could sway more customers than the availability of Bud Light. Just some of my thoughts.
dpeck 13y ago
You'd be surprised. I'm fairly sure I was drugged one night out at a club in London while out with coworkers. Fairly upscale place, very rough experience.
VLM 13y ago
No, I think the rest of civilization should be warped around preserving "bar culture" and our best minds should be eternally in a cat and mouse game of straw maker vs underground organic chemist. (Note I was kidding) Going out drinking is no longer a sane activity. So don't.

incision 13y ago

Clubs and bars tend to be dark and the patrons inebriated. I have to imagine that those factors would go an awful long way toward nullifying any benefit of this stuff. Also, if the technology involved is anything like the color-changing "field test" kits that cops use, false positives will be a problem. An associate of mine was booked for "heroin possession" when an overzealous cop decided to test his aspirin during a traffic stop - he was released the instant he got a hold of a lawyer.

eggbrain 13y ago

This is a great invention that can help prevent abuse, but I'm worried bars won't buy in for a few reasons: 1) I assume the cups have to be disposable, as the strips probably don't work multiple times. Most bars I've been to don't use disposable cups. 2) Even if they did, it has to be cost effective for the bar to consider using them. If 1000 cups is $250 (0.25/cup) and you can get 10,000 normal cups for that price, that's going to probably factor into their decision. 3) The bar might be worried that having these cups might reflect poorly on their reputation. I can imagine people saying to themselves "Why is the bar using special glasses that detect date rape? Is date rape a problem at this bar?" When you introduce an item like this it might lead to speculation that there is a problem when really you're trying to be safe. It's like if you installed a metal detector at a club and put bars on the windows -- you might be doing it just to be safe, but your patrons might think "do things happen here that warrant security precautions like this"?

hfsktr 13y ago
On number 3, people might think the opposite too. "We can go here and not have to worry!" I wonder how that would factor into how much someone drinks "Since there are no drugs to worry about, the people must be trustworthy enough to get blackout drunk around!"

andrewhillman 13y ago

These drugs are without consistent ingredients and are always changing. He will need to stay ontop of drug trends and the constant iteration will side track the project. His biggest challenge will be scoring the actual drug to test the sensors... The chances that he will be able to produce these cups for an amount equal to the current cost of a regular plastic cup is doubtful. Etch-it cups can't even come close to the price of a regular plastic cup so how can these sensor cups be priced to attract bulk orders from bars and clubs? My guess is that he is banking that the patent has value to cup manufacturers but the cup manufacturers probably don't want to hire a slew of scientist for R&D. They just want to make and sell cups.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

asdasf 13y ago

Why does this frequently "invented" useless item keep getting press every time it is "invented" for the dozenth time? These are really misguided devices, that give people a false sense of safety (it is even labeled "safe" on the non-spiked drink) when alcohol is far and away the most used and most dangerous date rape drug.

jwoah12 13y ago
You could always invent your own strip that detects alcohol and displays UNSAFE. That way people will be reminded before they drink their vodka tonic that it contains alcohol.
- asdasf 13y ago
  The point was not that we need to detect alcohol. The point was that these things are counter productive to the goal of preventing date rape.
  - jwoah12 13y ago
    Sorry, I was being sarcastic. The goal of these things is to prevent date rape by someone unsuspectingly taking particular drugs. There's not much you are going to be able to invent if your goal is to stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol.
    - asdasf 13y ago
      But you just repeated the same thing. Again, I am not suggesting "stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol" should be a goal. I am saying these devices are harmful. They have the opposite effect from what is intended. They create a false sense of security in regards to the problem, convincing people that as long as their drink hasn't been spiked they are fine. But 99% of date rapes involving drugs aren't from drink spiking, they are just from drinking.
      - 13y ago

adamio 13y ago

Invent me a cup that tells me if my Diet Coke is actually Regular Coke, then we can talk

semiprivate 13y ago
Taste buds?
- adamio 13y ago
  An indicator with fewer false +/- than taste buds
  - venomsnake 13y ago
    Even coke zero tastes nothing like regular coke. Aspartame has very distinct after taste - almost rotten like.

diminoten 13y ago

Instead of every cup or every straw doing this, some random and unknown percentage would do it. Combined with advertising, it could be an effective deterrent in a place where this is a real problem. People keep mentioning a bar's reputation, but at the end of the day if this is a real problem for your bar, your reputation is already screwed. This seems to me like a very pro-active way of working on fixing an already broken reputation.

newbie12 13y ago

I want a straw that tests for adulterated alcohol-- specifically for a bar serving filtered rubbing alcohol instead of the real stuff.

NegativeK 13y ago
15g of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol will kill you. There's a chance, though, that you may be calling low quality ethanol alcohol rubbing alcohol, and I'm just missing it.

celwell 13y ago

It's genius!

Millennium 13y ago

It seems to me that, rather than making straws and drinks that do this, it would be better to see if it could be incorporated into some kind of nail polish that, once dried, could detect this. I suggest nail polish for two reasons. One is that it removes the need to carry specialized tools: once you've done your nails, you can test 10 drinks and leave the bottle at home. Not having to carry a tool is somewhat more convenient, but it also means the tool can't be forgotten, lost, stolen, or tampered with. The other advantage is discretion. It's not difficult, with a setup like this, to test a drink without others knowing what you are doing. It could be argued that people shouldn't mind being tested, but from a pragmatic standpoint, the kind of person who spikes a drink is the kind of person who could very easily become dangerous if they know they're being put to the test. A discreet test, therefore, is a safer test, and since these tests are supposed to be all about safety, it follows that a discreet test is also a better test.

tinha 13y ago
The idea is good, but it would be more targeted to women than men.
- jsymolon 13y ago
  A clear coat will work with both sexes.

venomsnake 13y ago

Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution to have someone trusted who to call from time to time. With everybody having smartphones an gps app that for given period of time sends messages to trusted 3rd party about your location and being able to call if something is out of order is also a solution. Just before going upstairs she just calls to the "warden" and if she is speaking coherent ... do whatever you like. If not - the trusted party can take a cab or signal the police.

VLM 13y ago
"Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution" I'm with you on this. Nothing stupider than slapping a technical solution on a social problem and calling it good. Hmm, going out to drink unknown substances out of other peoples cups and letting other people mix potions for you and drinking out of cups people leave laying around unsupervised for others to mess with, is unsafe now, so "open mouth and out comes ridiculous cross between rube goldberg, life magazine predictions from 75 years ago about the future, and star trek technobabble". No, its just an obsolete, dangerous, dumb way to spend your time. You wanna do something stupid, fine, have fun, but don't come crying to me about how us smart people "have" to do something about your dumb decisions. Kinda like free love was cool before HIV. Or going drunk driving was a great idea when you drove your own horse, but really dumb idea after cars. Sorry to break it to all the whiners but like it or not we live in the 2010s so deal with it or suffer. Going out drinking means pretty scary odds of date rape. So unless you're dense as neutronium, don't do it. Before the chorus of how dare I blame the victim, well I have the right to blame them because I'm not an idiot. Going out drinking might have been fun in ye olden daze but its not ye olden daze anymore, its dumb and dangerous and THAT is why I have the right to blame the victim. I didn't get this brilliant knowledge from a reveled religion or a secret sauce, but from incessant whining of journalist reports, any other moron out there should be able to figure out the same thing I figured out, which is not to go out drinking anymore. Too bad for the victim if they're too dumb or lazy to think like the human being they are. Actions do have consequences. I do have genuine pity for like "the first" date rape victims, how could she have possibly known and she'd not to blame. But we've had a lot of journalism since then. Not for some idiot who went out last night with a virtual bullseye painted on their fun parts, knowing fully whats probably about to happen, knowing that when the inevitable happens, they can just blame "society" or maybe blame the "techies for not inventing a cure"... anyone to blame but themselves. There are perfectly good social solutions to this social problem. BYOB. Carry a fashionable hip flask. Strange as it may sound, you can socialize with friends without consuming liquids of any sort (insane concept, huh?). Take up an intoxicant that's safer than alcohol and harder (impossible?) to spike, like weed. "Back when I was a kid" we got totally drunk BEFORE we went out, who wants to repeatedly pay $7 a glass for something I can get drunk on at home for 75 cents/can, especially when you're a poor student. Only get drunk with actual friends at home instead of criminal strangers at a bar who want to take advantage of you. We're all smart here, its not very hard to figure out. These "revolutionary" ideas might negatively impact someones entrenched profitable business model? Tough cookies. Cry me a river. But don't spew random tech all over an outmoded idiotic behavior and call it brilliant. Its just obsolete thrashing about. Wanna suffer? Fine go out and do it. I'm not going to feel any pity when the inevitable happens. Don't worry, people are still going to find the numerous other ways to act stupid and hurt themselves.

JulianMorrison 13y ago

A better solution is to learn the behaviors that rapists use - being pushy and overbearing, not taking no for an answer, cutting out of the herd, stuff like that. If your buddy behaves like that, don't let him get away with it. And it's useless to detect rape drugs because the biggest rape drug is alcohol.

jkoehler 13y ago

- how many cups contain a drug (i.e. 0,1%; 99.9% are drug free)? - is the problem big enough for bars to care about? - do cup producers increase their rev/profit with this cup?

jkoehler 13y ago

- how many cups contain a drug (i.e. 0,1%; 99.9% are drug free)? - is the problem big enough for bars to care about? - do cup producers increase their rev/profit with this cup?

pjscott 13y ago

When the drink isn't drugged, these look just like straws and cups that don't detect drugs. This suggests an obvious attack: swap out the straw or cup for a plain plastic one. (Countermeasure: make the cups and straws look distinctive.)

codebeaker 13y ago

I happen to know (no time to look up the patent number now, sorry) that this is covered by a US, and EU patent. A friend of mine lost more than €30,000 to being sued by a firm that already holds the rights to this. I hope he figures it out before they start trolling him. My friend's “invention” also covered a product on beer-mats and serviettes that would change colour under the same circumstances, unfortunately the patent he was facing down was so broadly written that it covered basically anything that could be used to detect daterape drugs in a drink by indicating it somehow. Surely the patent could have been battled, but he wasn't in the financial position to do so.