New coaster to detect date-rape drugs? (Newswatch).

To protect their students from sexual assault, colleges and universities in the United States and Canada have bought millions of new coasters designed to detect the presence of the two major date-rape drugs in drinks.

Students are encouraged to test any drink left unattended, by dipping a finger or straw into the liquid, then rubbing it on a strip. If it turns red, blue or green after a minute, the coaster warns that the drink has been spiked with a date-rape drug.

The colorless, odorless drugs have been known to destroy inhibitions and blot out the memory of consumers, so victims are unaware of the sexual assault. The drugs leave no trace after four hours in the blood and 12 hours in the urine, so prosecution is difficult.

Having sold more than 50 million of the coasters since their introduction in March, the manufacturers claim they are 95% effective in detecting the presence of the two major date-rape drugs, GHB and ketamine, although 36 street drugs have also been classified as date-rape drugs.

At St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 800 new students received the coasters in their frosh kits last ...