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Monday, August 12, 2013

Date rape drug-detecting cup

Evidently a company called DrinkSavvy has developed a plastic cup which will change color when exposed to the three most common date rape drugs, GHB, ketamine, and rohypnol.

It sounds like a great idea.

I spoke to a college girl last spring who told me that she personally knew two different girls who had been fed such a drug and subsequently been taken advantage of. When I asked why the guys who had done it were not in jail, she said that the girls in such situations never wanted to press charges because they knew they would have their own reputations savaged in court and they didn't want to deal with that, plus they didn't want their parents to know what they'd been up to.

I can understand that, but it is a pity, because by all rights, any guy who'd drug a girl that way ought to be put away. In any case, this new plastic cup is a great idea.

I can think of only one drawback. It's easy to imagine a girl having drink after drink with a guy, and, as long as the cup doesn't change color, figuring she can trust him.

But what kind of shape will she be in after eight or so drinks? Hasn't alcohol been the traditional drug of choice among men ever since humans discovered fermentation?

Just sayin', a monochromatic cup could easily lull a coed into a false sense of security.

("Wow, he's bought me eight drinks and not one of them has changed the color of my cup....What a nice guy....Hmm, I seem to be in a really good mood....You know, I never realized how good he looks before this evening....I think I'll invite him back to my apartment.")

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I had never believed in any of this "date rape drug" nonsense. Why would any guy want to have sex with an unconscious girl whose life he put in danger with drugs? I've met many a girl who drank until she passed out. That's all it is.

John Craig said...

Bob --
I'm sure you're right that a lot of girls have used it as an excuse for sloppy behavior. But the drugs do exist, and are used. I even know a guy -- a world champion wrestler, no less -- who was given it. He was at a bar, he thinks he must have had someone else's drink by accident, but when he was driving home he felt very funny, almost got into an accident, pulled off the side of the road, threw up, then lay on the ground feeling helpless and somewhat paralyzed. He had no reason to lie about this, and is certainly not a guy who'd described himself as "helpless" in most situations.

John Craig said...

PS -- As far as guys wanting to have sex with girls who are semi-unconscious, well, there are plenty of perverts out there. I think you'd pretty much have to be a sociopath to drug a girl like that in the first place, and sociopaths feel no qualms about anything.

Anonymous said...

necrophile "guys" actually like to kill the girl and then have sex with the corpse.
Also, there is this girl, who drugged her own sister so that her boyfriend could rape her. The poor sister didn't have a chance to lie about being drugged as she choked on her own vomit and died. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Homolka

When a girl drinks until she passes out, it doesn't give you the right to rape her. But apparently, she is made to believe that it's her fault if she gets raped because she's drunk, thus, she has to lie about it.

John Craig said...

Anon --
I'd read about Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo before, they're pretty infamous. I guess that was the start of their crime spree.

There've been rape cases prosecuted before involving girls who were extremely drunk. But yes, it does seem to make it harder to prove.

On the other hand, it's my impression that there've been plenty of false rape charges filed as well, especially since there seems to be no penalty attached to filing such charges. If it can be clearly proven that a woman filed such charges, she should get a sentence equal to what the guy would have gotten had he been (falsely) convicted.

Anonymous said...

"When a girl drinks until she passes out, it doesn't give you the right to rape her."
Passing out drunk does not entitle someone to steal your wallet either. Leaving your keys in the door does not entitle someone to rob your car or home.
Stupidly making it too easy for someone to steal one's car, wallet or pussy removes most of one's entitlement to complain about being wronged. People should actually be outraged to learn of such events, because now their minds are sullied with knowledge of a crime, which was mostly preventable. Aside from all that, the worst thing about the white-knighting for passed-out (drunk, not drugged) rape victims, is the standard keeps slipping down the slope, to the point where some idiots claim that any amount of alcohol will literally melt a woman's ability to consent, like pouring water on a witch.

John Craig said...

Anon --
At my son's high school, they evidently taught, "If you've ever had sex drunk, you've been raped."

I don't think they were talking about men. But why not? If that stupid standard applies to women, when in fact there were two consenting parties, why not men?

Anonymous said...

And what if both the man and woman were drunk? Does that mean they raped each other simultaneously?

John Craig said...

Anon --
Exactly.

The thing is, the underlying supposition of the idea that a woman who's had a couple glasses of wine is unable to give her consent is that women are nothing but children.

This particular "rule" is a great illustration of what Camille Paglia pointed out a couple decades ago, which is that modern day feminism contains an essential contradiction: that on the one hand feminists want to be regarded as the complete equal of men in every way, and on the other they want to be accorded special protections which men do not enjoy. Hypocrisy writ large.