Three years ago, Mike Abramson was at a Boston nightclub celebrating a friend's birthday when he ordered a gin and tonic that turned out to be both impossible to remember and impossible to forget.
"The next thing I recall is being shuffled over the arms of friends as they dragged me out the door," said Abramson, a 31-year-old patent attorney. "Most of the night is a blur. I was so nauseous, I was bedridden the next day. I know that my drink was drugged, but I have no idea by whom."
Because of that, he never reported the incident to police, but he did go on to found DrinkSavvy, a Boston startup and MassChallenge finalist that aims to eradicate drug-assisted date rape with cups, straws and stirrers that change color if a drink has been tampered with.
The U.S. Justice Department estimates that at least 400,000 people are drugged each year, but the number could be much larger because the department estimates that fewer than 5 percent ever report it.
Like Abramson, many don't remember the incident or are afraid of being accused of drinking too much.
Women in particular often are advised not to accept drinks from strangers, not to leave their drink unattended and not to drink from punch bowls.
"But it only takes half a second for someone to slip something in your glass," he said. "And it's difficult to detect because it's usually colorless, odorless and tasteless."
Abramson researched other drug-detectors such as coasters, but found them awkward to use because you have to pour some of your drink onto them and wait for them to dry and change color.
Other companies make testing strips, but they're only as good as the second you dip them into your drink.
So Abramson teamed up with chemists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and raised more than $52,000 from nearly 2,600 donors on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.com to develop plastic party cups, straws and stirrers that, when they are completed, will change color in three to five seconds if a drink has been spiked.
"We make invisible drugs visible without the user having to do anything," Abramson said. "It's discreet, effortless monitoring of your drink throughout the night."
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