Anti-Date-Rape Straw Invented with Legitimate Rape Science

Thanks to a professor at Tel Aviv University, date rape just got a whole lot more difficult.

And while Todd Akin has yet to review the science, it appears to be a breakthrough.

Professor Fernando Patolsky, who teaches chemistry, has unveiled the latest weapon in the fight against date rape, an anti-date-rape straw. A whopping 1-in-6 women will get sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and Patolsky believes that once this straw becomes a mainstay in bars and clubs it can help to fight that number.

But how does this “anti-Roethlisberger” straw work? The simple answer is that the straw detects drugs in drinks and then changes color to alert the drinker of a chemical substance. The more complicated answer is that the straw sucks up a tiny sample of your drink and then mixes it with a solution that will change the color and opacity of the sample depending on the kind of drug it detects. Currently the straw can detect the two most common date rape drugs, ketamine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). Patolsky is also working on enabling the straw to detect more kinds of drugs including Rohypnol (Roofie).

Professor Patolsky and his partner, Michael Ioffe, are planning on the commercial release of the straw, which can be used multiple times (until it detects a drug) and is set to cost less than a standard drink at a club, within the year to be sold at pharmacies and night clubs. No news on whether Motts plans on attaching these straws to juice boxes in the Penn State area.
Via ABC