After spending a year at New Jersey’s most notorious party school and watching just about every episode of Gossip Girl, date rape drugs are a very real fear to me. No, I’m not trying to sound glib; it doesn’t matter if I’m having a beer with a female friend and Harvest Moon Brewery happens to be empty because, you know, it’s 11 am on a Tuesday. I am guarding that lipstick-stained glass like a hawk.
Enter Michael Abramson, a Boston attorney and the inventor of DrinkSavvy. We’ve written about Abramson’s innovation before, but now it’s even closer to becoming a reality. In fact, after a successful Indiegogo campaign, it’s slated to be available to the general public in 2014, and available to contributors as early as September!
But what exactly is Drinksavvy, you ask? Basically, Abramson has invented cups and straws that will detect date rape drugs like GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid) in your drink. If the presence of a date rape drug is detected, red stripes would appear on the cups and straws to discreetly warn you that the drink has been tampered with. Totes cray, amirite?
Abramson was inspired to create DrinkSavvy after he himself was drugged one night. Although he emerged relatively unscathed from the horrifying incident, he nonetheless decided to be proactive about preventing the use of these drugs and came up with this idea. Which is awesome and makes this exceptional, do-goody business venture worth fighting for.
HOWEVER. I hate to be Sir Buzzkillington here, but I feel like we should step back a second.
Can this really be effective on a grand scale? Would every (or any) bar in America trade in their patented mugs for chemical-laden cups? Would any frat boy Douchelord on my campus REALLY forsake his trademark red cup this kind of innovative technology? Wouldn’t said frat boy Douchelord NOTICE if the straw turned red the minute he roofied my drink?
(For those of you who are wondering why I even go to my university if I’m so against it…it has a stellar journalism program. Don’t judge me.)
On a less cynical note, if this saved even one person from being raped it would be worth it. So maybe it doesn’t have to make its way into every bar, frat party or sketchy club in America. If it can somehow be implemented to protect women – and men – in any way, it would be a worthwhile investment.
Meanwhile, I think we can all agree that it’s horrifying that we live in a society where we need to invent a special cup to prevent being raped.
SO, friends. There’s a video below that demonstrates how DrinkSavvy works, which I all think you should watch, because it’s kind of cool.
THEN, I want to hear your thoughts in the comment section! Would you buy these cups for all your parties? Take the straws to every bar? Or are you just generally upset that this is the world we live in? Let us know how you really feel!
Original Article and Images via wgbhnews.org
