Cases of drugs being introduced into your drink when you are on the dancefloor are unfortunate features of today’s nightlife, if figures compiled by the advisory centre Giftlinjen at Copenhagen’s Bispebjerg Hospital are to be believed.
The figures reveal that since 2010, the number of cases reported of people who suspect their drinks have been tampered with has quadrupled from 45 in 2010 to 190 last year.
READ MORE: Record number of Danes having their drinks spiked
Beam me up
Step forward Ulrik Merrild. He is the Danish administrative director of a company called Drugster and the brains behind a new invention consisting of a pen-sized scanner that can analyse a drink in 2-5 seconds to check for foreign substances, reports BT.
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“Every substance leaves a fingerprint, so by holding the pen over the drink and shining it down in it, you can see whether rohypnol, fantasy, or any other drug has been added,” said Merrild.
Based on a spectroscopic technique, the pen shines a light into the liquid which is reflected back into the pen where a chip is activated. The chip contains data from thousands of tests and is therefore able to detect whether the drink contains substances such as fantasy, MDMA, rohypnol, ketamine or other drugs.
READ MORE: Danish company developing bracelet able to detect drugs in your drink
When commercially available, the Drugster pen is expected to cost around 1,000 kroner.
