Daimo
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2001
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New weapon against sex predators
By Karen Ho
YOU walk back to your table at a club and pick up your drink, but you do not know if it has been spiked while you were gone. Now, there is a way for you to find out.
The credit card-sized Drink Spike Detector, launched this month, can give the answer within seconds.
Just smear a drop or two on a pink and a green spot on the sheet of paper and if either turns dark blue, the drink has been tampered with.
The kit, with four tests, retails at $7.65 in 40 Guardian Pharmacies islandwide.
Each pair of spots can identify two popular illicit party drugs - ketamine and gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as the date rape drug.
Both are colourless, odourless and tasteless and leave no trace after about three days for ketamine and three hours for GHB.
The test, however, does not work on drinks containing fruit juice or milk.
The company which introduced it here, Oky, plans to target nightclubs and pubs, as well as universities, polytechnics and junior colleges.
'Their students frequent nightspots quite a bit, so we thought it would be a good idea to let them know the dangers of leaving their drinks unattended,' Oky's business development manager Thomas Ng told The Straits Times yesterday.
The kit, manufactured by Drink Safe Technologies in America, was named one of the best inventions of last year by Time magazine.
Oky plans to promote it this Saturday, when its staff will don T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan 'Think Before You Drink', and give out flyers at Raffles Place in the afternoon and Mohamed Sultan Road at night.
Next month, it will go to the educational institutions to put up notices and distribute flyers to keep students informed and promote the test.
The kits are widely used in the United States and Australia, said Mr Ng and Drink Safe Technologies laboratories have found them 95 per cent to 98 per cent accurate.
Although there have been no reported cases of date rape here, owners of nightspots, clubbers and the Central Narcotics Bureau welcomed the kit.
A CNB spokesman said yesterday: 'Any product that assists a person to detect the presence of a controlled substance would enhance his or her protection.'
Managing director of Devils Bar Dennis Foo said he would 'stock it for my security staff to use it to test the drinks of suspected drug abusers'.
However, public relations executive Eileen Lee, 24, said 'it would be awkward to do the test in front of people'.
'I think it's really up to you to make sure your drink is not spiked by not leaving it unattended when you're with people you're not familiar with.'
In January, Oky plans to sell Drink Safe Coasters to pub and club owners.
The coasters will act in the same way as the kits, and once the spots on the coaster turn dark blue, it is time to throw away that drink.
'We are very excited about other products that are in the pipeline, like a cocktail swizzle stick which can detect if your drink has been spiked,' said Mr Ng.
full article can be found here.... http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,225691,00.html
By Karen Ho
YOU walk back to your table at a club and pick up your drink, but you do not know if it has been spiked while you were gone. Now, there is a way for you to find out.
The credit card-sized Drink Spike Detector, launched this month, can give the answer within seconds.
Just smear a drop or two on a pink and a green spot on the sheet of paper and if either turns dark blue, the drink has been tampered with.
The kit, with four tests, retails at $7.65 in 40 Guardian Pharmacies islandwide.
Each pair of spots can identify two popular illicit party drugs - ketamine and gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as the date rape drug.
Both are colourless, odourless and tasteless and leave no trace after about three days for ketamine and three hours for GHB.
The test, however, does not work on drinks containing fruit juice or milk.
The company which introduced it here, Oky, plans to target nightclubs and pubs, as well as universities, polytechnics and junior colleges.
'Their students frequent nightspots quite a bit, so we thought it would be a good idea to let them know the dangers of leaving their drinks unattended,' Oky's business development manager Thomas Ng told The Straits Times yesterday.
The kit, manufactured by Drink Safe Technologies in America, was named one of the best inventions of last year by Time magazine.
Oky plans to promote it this Saturday, when its staff will don T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan 'Think Before You Drink', and give out flyers at Raffles Place in the afternoon and Mohamed Sultan Road at night.
Next month, it will go to the educational institutions to put up notices and distribute flyers to keep students informed and promote the test.
The kits are widely used in the United States and Australia, said Mr Ng and Drink Safe Technologies laboratories have found them 95 per cent to 98 per cent accurate.
Although there have been no reported cases of date rape here, owners of nightspots, clubbers and the Central Narcotics Bureau welcomed the kit.
A CNB spokesman said yesterday: 'Any product that assists a person to detect the presence of a controlled substance would enhance his or her protection.'
Managing director of Devils Bar Dennis Foo said he would 'stock it for my security staff to use it to test the drinks of suspected drug abusers'.
However, public relations executive Eileen Lee, 24, said 'it would be awkward to do the test in front of people'.
'I think it's really up to you to make sure your drink is not spiked by not leaving it unattended when you're with people you're not familiar with.'
In January, Oky plans to sell Drink Safe Coasters to pub and club owners.
The coasters will act in the same way as the kits, and once the spots on the coaster turn dark blue, it is time to throw away that drink.
'We are very excited about other products that are in the pipeline, like a cocktail swizzle stick which can detect if your drink has been spiked,' said Mr Ng.
full article can be found here.... http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,225691,00.html