Recently, a new nail polish has been formulated that is not only fashionable, but very practical as well. The polish was created to help determine if one’s drink has been altered or tampered with. The polish starts as one color when you apply it, but if you were to dip a finger into a laced or tampered with beverage, the color of the nail polish will change automatically.
This invention is brilliant, especially for college students. At a party, students have no idea if their drink is laced with a drug or not and currently, there is not a way to determine so. Therefore, this new nail polish could be the answer. It looks exactly the same as regular nail polish, but the only difference is that it changes colors when it is touched with a drug. If this nail polish actually works, then I believe many college incidents such as “date rapes” will be prevented.
Four students from North Carolina State University are credited with creating this product. They are known as Undercover Colors and their goal is “to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime.” This group of boys has the right idea. New inventions need to be created to protect women of all ages when they are out socially and make them feel protected and in control.
The nail polish is still being studied and tested, but as of now, it is the newest technology to detect date rape drugs. With every study, there are always people who disagree with the case. With this new product, many people have said “it is giving people a false sense of safety when its products test for some of the most common date rape drugs such as “Molly” and “Rohypnol” but no other drugs.” Also, the nail polish needs to be in direct contact with the beverage and therefore there cannot be any protective clear coats on top of the nail.
Many people are also skeptical about this product because many other products have been created before to try and prevent the same situation and have not been successful. For example, one study of commercially available “date rape” drugs tested coasters as being able to detect the drug. However, the coaster was found unreliable. It changed colors for mineral water, which is clearly not a drug. It also took a very long time to change colors when touched with ketamine, and gave a false positive sign with milk.
Even though there is not a lot of evidence to support that this new drug detector actually works, it has the right idea. More ideas like this need to be created and tested. Being a freshman in college, one of my biggest fears is drinking something that has been laced because you have no idea. Precautions need to be taken and the only way this problem will decrease is if women are somehow able to detect when their drink is laced. But the problem is that they cannot. There must be other ways besides nail polish or coasters to detect if there is a drug in a drink. What if instead of nail polish changing colors when the drug touched it, the cup did? That way everyone at the party knows that the drink is laced. Continued research and product development will not only yield new ideas, but keep this very important issue in the public’s awareness.
This is a great post and very well written. I think the idea of this nail polish is brilliant. I believe that there is a lack of evidence that it works. There needs to be more studies and tests to see if it works and figure out what improvements need to be made because this product could possibly save women from serious harm if it functions correctly. I think that your idea about the cup changing colors is great in theory, however I don’t know that it’s all that practical because the people supplying the cups could be the ones putting the drugs in the drinks. I think that if the nail polish works, it leaves the woman in control and prevents her from danger.
I’ve also heard about this idea of drug detecting nail polish before, but hadn’t heard all of the details. I think it’s a great idea, but agree that there should be more studies to make sure it will work correctly and not give false positives or false negatives. This article is about a man that is working to develop cups and straws that change color to indicate a drink has been drugged. They have not yet been released to the market, but he’s working to make them in the same price range as similar products that have been released. The cup or straw detects the drug that has been added, and produces red stripes to warn the person whose drink it is. The product still requires some more testing, but it would be another great step in safety if it is released to the public.
I’ve actually heard about this product before you posted it, but didn’t know that there were other methods similar to this one already used and created such as the coaster. While I do believe this is a brilliant idea, I do believe there needs to be more research and testing before they really put this product out on the market. Since the nail polish is detecting things that aren’t even harmful, such as mineral water and milk, but not detecting serious drugs like ketamine, there is a serious issue with it. If it is going to be sold as the way it is, the company making it needs to let the public know its flaws because if consumers aren’t aware, it can get them into trouble. Instead of putting it out in the market just yet, I think they should look into making it more reliable, so it can detect other drugs like ketamine. This way, the company can be credited with protecting more people, and create a better image for their brand.
This is a super interesting blog post, Alyssa. Like you said, as freshman girls, it is a very alarming thing to know that people actually lace drinks with drugs. Its scary to think that someone can do this so easily and our fate can quickly be in the hands of someone else. You were mentioning how it would be a good idea if people came up with some new products to do the same thing this nail polish is supposed to do. I was curious so I checked it out. Here it says that there is a company called “DrinkSavvy” that has created straws, cups, stirrers, glasses, etc. that essentially do the same thing as the nail polish. You can find out a little more about DrinkSavvy’s products here.