New Nail Polish Alerts Wearers To Date Rape Drugs 595
stephendavion writes Checking to see if your drink has been tampered with is about to get a whole lot more discreet. Thanks to the work of four North Carolina State University undergrads, you'll soon be able to find out without reaching for a testing tool. That's because you'll already have five of them on each hand. The team — Ankesh Madan, Stephen Gray, Tasso Von Windheim, and Tyler Confrey-Maloney — has come up with a creative and unobtrusive way to package chemicals that react when exposed to Rohypnol and GHB. They put it in nail polish that they're calling Undercover Colors.
As someone who went to NC State (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to sign over all inventions you create as undergrads to the university.
At least if you're an engineer.
The university was bitter about an undergrad project turning into a billion dollar company(SAS) and them not seeing a cut.
nice idea (Score:4, Interesting)
all that being said though, the rule wouldn't help you if the bartender is in cahoots with his buddy. you could also then only drink beer from a bottle (that you see opened in front of you), but for mixed drinks - why not have the extra level of security?
also, to the extent that people understand this exists, it may prevent ne'er do wells from trying it in the first place, as a positive test should result in some serious accusations flying that creepers would probably like to avoid.
Re:This is Slashdot . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I wish we didn't need something like this (Score:5, Interesting)
Why do enough members of my own gender have to be such creepy bastards that we need something like this to be developed?
Well, it's not actually that complicated. There's a few common psychological threads that tend to unite serial rapists. Pyschopathy/sociopathy/anti-social personality disorder(whatever you feel like calling it) is one. People who just can't imagine another persons' perspective at all tend to be capable of some pretty shitty things for pretty stupid reasons.
Another is a flexible definition of rape. They tend to look for an excuse for why something "doesn't count" as rape. So they blame "mixed signals" or "unreasonable rejection" or "playing games" or similar kinds of behavior. People tend to be excellent rationalizes, and after the first rape, serial rapists tend to start finding any excuse.
(Oh, and don't mistake "serial rapists" for the common image of stranger violently raping women on the street, most serial rapists still engage in acquaintance rape. That's a pretty important distinction.)
Re: The world we live in. (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're a completely stupid fuck. For one thing I know someone who had roofies used on her. She knew a member of the frat since they were little kids and he still pulled a "bros before hoes" on her. (Yes I know he was probably the rapist.) I have also stumbled on someone in downtown Portland who had been given something. Had one drink and she couldn't walk properly. Roofies are not a "moral panic block", they are widely available, tasteless and odorless drug used by sociopaths to rape people. Do you read the news? Do know who many women are raped each year on campuses in the US? Take your useless, ignorant, thoughtless, opinion and have some frat boy tape it to his dick and shove it up your ass and see what you "think" about it then.
Re:Is this really necessary as a mass-market produ (Score:4, Interesting)
You can't get GHB anymore because of dumb ass jocks, but, for some reason, Phenibut isn't scheduled.
Phenibut is a GABA receptor agonizer with a powerful relaxing effect. It's OTC, but pretty useless: you become tolerant on the first use, and then require high doses to get an effect. It might be useful once a month, give or take a week. After using it for 2-3 days--by upping the dose a bit to overcome tolerance--side effects include severe depression and suicidal desires. Your life actually becomes a steaming pile of despair from which you wish to escape. It's far more addictive than Valium, and worse than Heroin.
A dose of 250mg is a good, strong initial dose. Doses of 5000mg are common among body builders, who use the substance as a relaxant while training (bodybuilders used to dose GHB for the same purpose). A dose of 5000mg directly into some girl's drink would be fantastic... until it wore off. In the interim, nothing would bother her, and she'd probably be amenable to whatever you want. The next day, she'd cry a lot, then kill herself after deciding she'd be better off.
Again: this stuff is OTC, has no viable medical use, is impossible to use without addiction, has severe withdraw effects, is not directly toxic at high doses, and can be used to make someone compliant.
It should be banned because it's sold OTC as an anti-stress relaxant, yet is incredibly fucking dangerous to the user. It's not a thing you could dose yourself safely--like Modafinil or Dextroamphetamine--because it's not a thing a fucking physician could prescribe safely for any useful treatment. It's not a dangerous drug that can provide a recreational high or a medical benefit or can somehow be managed; it's a completely useless, indirectly toxic substance that creates immediate tolerance and brings on intense withdraw qualifying as a medical emergency.
I bet their strips don't test for that.
Re:I wish we didn't need something like this (Score:0, Interesting)
And people wonder why women were advised not to put out until the guy has made a public proclamation that he will take care of her and any kids their union might produce.... Old timers call this "marriage."
Re:The world we live in. (Score:4, Interesting)
No, he wants to live in a world where people take responsibility for their own safety. Knowing that rapists are out there, and knowing that keeping your drink in hand at and in view at all times is a simple and effective preventative measure, it is irresponsible not to take that simple measure.
Hell, a girl I was dating brought me a drugged drink when I was 17; it wasn't even alcohol and we weren't even at a club, it was kool-aid and we were at someone's house, babysitting their 3 kids. I learned, then, that you get your own drinks and keep them in hand and in view at all times, even around people you trust. It's not your fault if you get raped if you don't do that (of course, the rapist made the decision to rape) but it is your fault you didn't at least take steps to prevent it (you made the decision not to).
I don't blame myself for the girl's actions; after all, I didn't drug my own drink, she did. And I didn't rape myself after I passed out, she did. I don't even blame myself for trusting her; I had known her for over a year at that point and she had always been good to me. Hell, she wouldn't even have had to rape me, I was willing, so the thought never even crossed my mind. I let my guard down, and I do blame myself for that; but, at the same time, life isn't worth living if you don't let people in at some point. So, instead of becoming a woman-hating shut-in, I considered what I could have done differently to prevent it from happening, and I learned from it. In case you haven't absorbed the information by now, that is to get my own drinks and keep them in hand and in view; that allows you to still trust people, until they give you a reason not to, while allowing you to quickly and easily see that you have reason not to trust that particular person *before* something bad happens.
It's not perfect, bad shit can and will still happen, but by taking mitigating steps, at least you've prevented one form of bad shit. Really, the same reason you lock your doors, despite the fact that a criminal can just break a window.
Re: The world we live in. (Score:4, Interesting)
Being able to say no to liquor is extremely easy
Yes, it is. However: if a woman has had too much? That's still not an excuse to take advantage of her. I don't know about anyone else, but I've had women want to have sex with me while they were significantly drunk, and I just won't do it because I know they'll regret it later, and I don't want to be That Guy. Oh, and for the record: Women should not take advantage of guys who are too drunk, either. Of course there's a double standard, as always, which is also bullshit, but that's another subject entirely.