A former McGill professor has invented a device to detect the date-rape drug in liquid, and when it comes to Canada, it could make nights out a little safer.
The product is called the Drink Detective, and it can quickly determine the presence of GHB, and other drugs that render people unconscious and create memory gaps, by changing the colour of spiked drinks when tested in a blotter.
Stanley Grossman, now a resident of the U.K., invented the detector. It was purchased by police in Wales, and handed out in bars. Grossman said the results were immediate, even if many women didn't actually test their drinks.
"They found a 15.3 per cent immediate reduction in reported sexual assaults," because spiking stopped, he explained.
The test, which is soon coming to Canada, acted as a deterrent, he said.
"If every woman had a Drink Detective in her purse, and everybody knew that every woman had one, then it becomes much riskier for the bad guy or the bad girl to spike somebody's drink," he said.
Ziggy Eichenbaum, owner of Ziggy's Pub on Crescent St., said he loves the idea of the test.
"A couple of girls that came over here and we had to call the paramedics and all that. They were in a disco - I don't know where exactly, but on Crescent Street - but suddenly they felt that their legs went under them," he said, adding that he feels the problem is more prevalent in busy nightclubs than in bars.
"I'll even comp half the price of whatever it is. If it makes them feel safer, then it's great -- absolutely fantastic."
