They wanted to help lower rape statistics.
Three high school students in Florida are breaking ground by creating straws that will be able to detect date rape drugs.
Victoria Roca, Susana Cappello, and Carolina Baigorri came up with the idea in one of their entrepreneurship classes at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami.
“It’s a straw. It has two test strips so if you put it into a drink, it will determine whether it’s drugged or not. If it is drugged, the strip will turn to a navy color,” Roca told InsideEdition.com.
The teens said they came up with the idea after realizing what a problem rape is in society.
“Being young women, I feel like this is a problem that we hear about a lot, especially when we came to high school. It’s such a common problem. Statistics say it’s one in every five women, which is so many people,” Baigorri said.
The teens said they felt passionate about lowering that number.
The prototype they designed detects the most common date rape drugs: flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), also called roofies, and gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also called liquid ecstasy, and ketamine, also called Special K.
“With our research, we found out that a lot of (times) when drugs are put into drinks (women) don’t only get raped but they traffick" the women, Roca said.
A patent is pending for their design and the girls hope to market the straws to college students and supply them at bars, clubs, and restaurants.
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“We know it’s not a solution because it can’t end rape, but we were hoping to lower the amount of rape and dangerous situations you might be in through drugs,” Baigorri said.
“Our impact is just to help people feel safe in their surroundings and be aware of what’s going on and just to make sure that where they are, and what they are drinking, is safe,” Cappello added.
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