Nail,varnish to detect date rape drugs

[Clarksspurge]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-28958365

I am normally ms sceptic with most things but I thought this is brilliant. I have two dds and would encourage them to wear a (transparent?) varnish maybe on one finger just in case. Am I being naive?

The backlash that it has gotten has really shocked me. I totally agree that more should be done to stop rapists, rather than the women having to go to measures to prevent being raped, but whilst there are rapists out there, surely any steps to protect oneself if a good thing?
Sounds like a good idea to me.

I grew up with warnings from my parents to never leave my drink unattended. However the culture of buying rounds at the bar makes this near impossible. I think a discrete 'tool' to help women (and also men) be aware of what's going on is such a great idea.

The science tea developing this seems to consist only of males. I do hope they seek and get female input through user research to stay on the ball with their product developments to keep them relevant.

Well done to these yup for coming up with this ingenious yet simple idea.

Oh dear typing on tablet

*tea = team

*Yup = guys

I think its good, but in a way it upsets me as its down to the victim to to be aware, if you see what I mean.

The sorriest state of affairs is that it is needed. I shall certainly encourage dd to wear it when she starts going out in the evenings (she's 15 now and not at that point yet).

Just remember that you'll need to dunk your fingers in your drink every time you want to take a sip of it, just in case.

I think that part of the backlash must be down to the way the people who made it have put it across. Things like:

"With our nail polish, any woman will be empowered to discreetly ensure her safety by simply stirring her drink with her finger".

That's not true though is it. Date rape drugs are involved in a tiny proportion of rapes. Doing this will not "ensure her safety" at all, quite frankly.

There are myriad other problems like, a woman dunks her finger, ooh doctored drink, I'll be on alert (from who?) not drink that etc. Potential rapist is thwarted by that victim so simply picks another one. So someone still gets raped.

I mean there's loads of stuff.

People can wear it if they want by all means but on the whole I agree with a lot of the criticisms in the article.