As I began to paint my nails one night I got to thinking about an article I read on Facebook a while back. The article was about a brand of nail polish that has been designed to enable girls, especially college students, to detect if they are being drugged through their drink at a party. In order to detect a drug, one must swirl their finger, that has the nail polish on it, throughout the drink. If there is a drug present, the nail polish color will change, alerting the person that the drink is not safe to consume.
The nail polish called “Undercover Colors” was created by four male undergraduate students from North Carolina State University. Ankesh Madan, Stephen Grey, Tasso Von Windheim and Tyler Confrey-Maloney have created this product because they personally knew someone who was sexually assaulted. Their product is made to change color when there is a chemical reaction with the following drugs: Rohypnol, Xanax, and GHB.
The men have set up a facebook page to gain followers in their pursuit to launch the new products. There, they make announcements pertaining to the progress they have made and what the next steps are. Those who are willing are also encouraged to donate money to the research required to get the product approved. Donations can be made at www.undercovercolors.com. The money has been used to get the product to investment levels, while gaining on their goal to launch the product.
I believe that this product has amazing potential and I support it completely. I think it is amazing that they worked with chemists in their college to research and produce this product. It is astonishing that they have come up with something so simple like nail polish yet intricate that it can detect three different drugs.
Not only are these men creating an amazing product but they also volunteer at a sexual assault and domestic violence center, Interact. This product has the potential to reach and effect many. Undercover Colors will help college students avoid getting slipped drugs and forgetting the rest of the night. With such a simple coat of nail polish, one can be saved from such life changing experiences.
Although I do totally agree that this discussion should be more centered around destroying the ideas and norms that cause rape to happen so frequently, I think this product is an excellent conception. In a perfect world, misogyny and rape culture wouldn’t exist, but this world is far from perfect. Ultimately, and from a strictly scientific standpoint, this product is extremely smart. We need to do A LOT (A LOT.) more to stop men from committing rape and destroy the ideas that make people think it’s okay, but this product will keep women safe, and allow a non-intrusive way to prevent cases of sexual assault. In the meantime, we seriously need to start addressing the things that allow rape to happen, and start telling men the things they need to hear to truly prevent rape at the source.
Jessica,
This idea is definitely an interesting one and the creators of this product are pretty clever for coming up with it. As a female, while I was reading your article I began to feel more and more offended by that product. I did some research and discovered that there is surprisingly a large controversy over what wouldn’t seem to be harmful product. Many people believe that this nail polish emphasizes the wrong assumption that it is the women’s fault if she is sexually assaulted.
The main issue that should be addressed is that fact that roofies are being put into drinks in the first place. Maybe that aspect should be the main focus of college rape cases rather than something else that is added to the list of “what girls should be doing”.
There are many people who feel this way and there are also surprisingly a large number of rape prevention activists who do not support this new product.
I have never heard of this product before and I think this was such a smart thing to think of. As I was sitting here reading this I started to read it to my roommate and she also thinks it’s a great idea too. You hear so many stories about people going to parties and getting drugged through their drinks then being rapped. I also think this product has great potential and it’s such an amazing way to avoid such a terrible experience.
* don’t know why that live link isn’t coming through to this page* http://journals.lww.com/nursingmanagement/blog/thinkaboutit/pages/post.aspx?PostID=46
I recently too stumbled upon this new nail polish technology of detecting date rape drugs in drinks, it really could be something life changing for so many in our day and age. When you explained that it could detect multiple drugs through chemical reaction, there’s sadly never 100% certainty that a drink is contaminated, no? I assume that Undercover Color’s opponents would raise of victim blaming and normalizing rape culture. Unlike previous methods of a straw, cup, or coaster, this is honestly a much easier and discreet form of drug detection. How could any deny the right for a women of any age to protect herself and make a better choice given the circumstance?
This is clearly a wonderful product to keep women safe from date rape drugs; however, after you stick your finger in your drink, which is probably covered in germs, would you want to drink the beverage? I feel as though the nail polish might be ineffective because lots of people would not want to drink something that they put their finger in. For those who do not care about germs, this is a must-have for girls going to parties. As previously mentioned by Jessica, it is unfortunate this product does not pertain to men. A possible date rape drug detector for men could be a small strip of paper, similar to a pH strip. Rather than measuring pH, the strip would measure whether someone has slipped you a drug or not.
This is clearly a wonderful product to keep women safe from date rape drugs; however, after you stick your finger in your drink, which is probably covered in germs, would you want to drink the beverage? I feel as though the nail polish might be ineffective because lots of people would not want to drink something that they put their finger in. For those who do not care about germs, this is a must-have for girls going to parties. As previously mentioned by Jessica, it is unfortunate this product does not pertain to men. A possible date rape drug detector for men could be a small strip of paper, similar to a pH strip. Rather than measuring pH, the strip would measure whether someone has slipped you a drug or not.
This is clearly a wonderful product to keep women safe from date rape drugs; however, after you stick your finger in your drink, which is probably covered in germs, would you want to drink the beverage? I feel as though the nail polish might be ineffective because lots of people would not want to drink something that they put their finger in. For those who do not care about germs, this is a must-have for girls going to parties. As previously mentioned by Jessica, it is unfortunate this product does not pertain to men. A possible date rape drug detector for men could be a small strip of paper, similar to a pH strip. Rather than measuring pH, the strip would measure whether someone has slipped you a drug or not.
I remember my brother telling me this a few years ago and I really hope this product becomes a hit because it can make a difference. At the same time, I hope they have something for guys
guys because they are also affected by date rape drugs.