The nail polish is called Undercover Colors. It changes colors when it comes into contact with date rape drugs, such as GHB or Xanax. This would alert a woman to the presence of the substances in her drink if she simply stirs the beverage with her finger. It would allow her to ensure that she doesn’t unknowingly consume the drugs that might make her susceptible to rape.
The director of the Salt Lake City’s Rape Recovery Center sees this a promising product. She was careful to say that multiple approaches are necessary to stop date rape, but that nail polish like this seems like a good thing for people to take advantage of.
When you consider how fast date rape drugs might leave the system, this nail polish might help alert women to the presence of it in a manner that they wouldn’t even consume it in the first place. A woman who doesn’t consume the date rape drugs, but still has a physical encounter with a man would have a much more difficult time proving that she was raped. That fact could help men who are being falsely accused of date rape to present their defense.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, “Is nail polish that detects date-rape drugs actually a bad idea?” Sheena McFarland, Aug. 28, 2014
