STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRITTANY MCAULEY
Four American business students are hoping to make date rape a thing of the past.
Undercover Colors, a nail polish that changes colour when it comes in contact with the date-rape drug, was created by North Carolina University students Tyler Confrey-Maloney, Stephen Gray, Ankesh Madon and Tasso Von Windheim. The entrepreneurs recently entered their product concept in 43 North, the world’s largest business idea competition held August to October in Buffalo.
Nails painted with their polish will change colour when they come into contact with common date rape drugs like Rohypnol (roofies), GHB (G-juice) or Xanax. You will be able to tell if your drink has been spiked by simply dipping a finger into your glass.
The company, although currently still in the development and research stage, is not the only one to create this type of product.
Drug Lab 118 in the U.K. manufactures swabs to detect drug usage in quantities of five mg or more and is currently developing a product that can detect if a drink has been contaminated.
Drink Safe Technologies, a Florida-based company, sells both coasters and test strips that can identify date rape drugs in your drink such as GHB and Ketamine.
Products like this can’t come fast enough for Sheridan students like Chris Moors.
Moors, 22, is a third year Bachelor of Illustration student and says she stopped going frequently to bars after she had a guy force himself on her; that was enough.
She says that while chemical detecting products can help, education on the topic of safety in bars is the key in these situations.
“I think it comes a lot with parents not wanting their kids to go out drinking but you have to educate. There’s no way of getting around it,” she said.
Moors didn’t know these types of products existed but says it’s a good idea and thinks it will help bring awareness to the topic.
“The fact that these products are needed says something.”
Rebecca Somer, a graduate of the Applied Photography program at Sheridan, bases her drink purchases on which ones are the safest.
“If I put it down [her drink] I usually walk away from it or I get beer so that way you can just put your thumb over it and never have to worry,” she said.
Somer’s sister had her drink spiked once while attending a night party at Wild Water Kingdom. She felt a guy bump into her and then heard a splash in her drink. “We knew right away it was drugged,” she said.
Her sister doesn’t go out drinking anymore because of the incident.
Somers has heard of Undercover Colors but was unaware there were other similar products on the market.
“I think it’s a good idea. It will be great for people who are new to drinking so that way if they’re ever curious or scared they can at least have the comfort of knowing that they have the choice to find out if it’s drugged or not [their drink].”
A Sheridan poll found that more than half of those surveyed would buy products like Undercover Colors; only one in five said they wouldn’t.
Although there are many products to help prevent date rape, it is still difficult to determine how helpful they will be in the long run. It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of women who are sexually assaulted do not report the crime to authorities.
Undercover Colors is looking for donations to bring their product to the market and make their idea a reality. It may not be long before partiers can order this polish and go undercover themselves.