Date rape drugs usually have no color, smell, or taste so they are difficult to detect when mixed with drinks. And because they are sometimes used during sexual assault, three female high school students have felt the calling to engineer a solution which detects date rape drugs: a straw.
Gulliver Preparatory School students Victoria Roca, Susana Cappello, and Carolina Baigorri developed a straw which turns to navy blue when the drink that goes through it is drugged. It has two test strips which are the primary indicators of date rape drugs. The straw can fit inside a purse.
Source: Miami Herald
It can detect the most common date rape drugs including flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) or roofies, gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) or liquid ecstasy, and ketamine or Special K.
The “straw ladies,” a name their classmates now call them, made use of one of their entrepreneurship classes to develop this device. They focused on a straw that detects date rape drugs after taking in mind the stark reality of the increasing rape cases and the fact that date rape drugs are used in trafficking women.
All of them feel that the drug-detecting straw they made is a life saver.
“Being young women, I feel like [rape] is a problem that we hear about a lot, especially when we came to high school. It’s such a common problem. Statistics say it’s one in every five women, which is so many people,” Baigorri said.
The three of them wish that their straw, which design is now pending for patent, could be sold in bars, clubs, and restaurants as well as to college students.
Source: Giphy
“We know it’s not a solution because it can’t end rape, but we were hoping to lower the amount of rape and dangerous situations you might be in through drugs,” Baigorri added.
Cappello shared that their impact is just to help people feel safe in their surroundings, especially when they are drinking.
Sources: Inside Edition | Miami Herald
