Within the last three years, Mike Abramson and three of his friends have been handed a drink spiked with an odorless, colorless and tasteless drug. With an estimated one-million date rape victims every year, Abramson claims the chances are someone close to you has had a similar experience—an experience he is now trying to prevent.

Abramson, a Worcester Polytechnic Institute alum and current patent attorney, started DrinkSavvy, a startup producing and selling color changing drinkware. With the help of WPI Chemistry Professor Dr. John MacDonald, Abramson has developed plastic straws, cups and stirrers made of material that can make invisible drugs, including GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol, visible. Although partygoers can already purchase rape drug test strips, DrinkSavvy products are discrete, allowing consumers to monitor their drinks throughout the night without needing to take out a card every time their date hands them a drink. Instead, they can slip out a stirrer when a suitor’s back is turned, or be handed a DrinkSavvy cup the minute they’ve been made their first beverage. Now all Abramson needs is funding, which is why he has headed to Indiegogo. With 19 days left, he has raised over $20,000 of his $50,000 goal.

On the Indiegogo page, Abramson writes local bars, clubs and universities will, one day, offer DrinkSavvy glassware “and eventually even bottles and cans.” And although the goal right now is to detect three of the most common date rape drugs, Abramson admits the drinkware will start to “be updated regularly as new drugs become popular.” Abramson has already received $12,500 from WPI to help commercialize the product. He’s also already started to garner support. One proponent wrote in the DrinkSavvy guestbook: “It is about time a product like this has been invented! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I wish you the best of luck!”

Source: www.bostinno.com 11.12.12