A French firm has designed a drinks ‘condom’ to fit over the rim of any glass so women can happily sip their drinks in nightspots without worrying about date-rape drugs.
Founded by two entrepreneurs from the city of Lille in the northernmost French region of Hauts-de-France, the company Drink Watch has created silicone caps to prevent victims falling foul of date-rape drugs such as GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), a colourless, odourless substance.
Since bars and night venues reopened after COVID-19 lockdown, the company has seen demand for the caps surge.
After being given a drug like GHB, victims typically experience blackouts and even unconsciousness, which attackers take advantage of to assault or rape them.
GHB can give victims the feeling of euphoria and increase their sex drive, but an increased dose, if even by less than a millilitre, can often prove fatal.
Drink Watch co-founder Antoine Dehay, 32, called his company’s cap “a band-aid in the fight against a huge social problem”.
He added: “We cannot educate malicious people, but we can provide an additional prevention tool to keep everyone safer.”
Dehay said the idea came to him four years ago when he was worried about his sister travelling to Spain to work as an au pair.
At the time, GHB-related cases on the other side of the Pyrenees were surging and his family was concerned about his sister’s wellbeing.
He said: “The basic idea was to protect my little sister but, when talking to people around us, we realised it had happened to a lot of people, even if no one talked about it. There was a real taboo around that. So, we tried to find protective caps to seal the glasses. We started to make drawings, to work on prototypes before unveiling this to the general public at the end of 2019.”
The fledgling company survived during the COVID-19 lockdown and suddenly received numerous orders from new clients when French nightspots reopened.
Dehay said: “We already had clients before, but since the start of the school year we have been facing a very high demand. In a month and a half, we have already sold three quarters of our stock.”
The item is sold exclusively to event professionals such as bar owners, nightclubs and even student associations. It is up to the clients to then distribute the caps, free of charge or not.
Today, around 200 establishments across France have decided to purchase the Drink Watch cap.
Dehay said: “It’s 100 percent made in France and is recyclable. There is no plastic. Everything is reusable and washable by hand several times until it cracks.”
