This looks more like an app for law enforcement than something someone would take to a bar. The alcohol sample has to be processed as follows (see Fig 1, materials and methods):
"Scheme II shows an overview of the reaction mechanism to give the purple-colored complex. A 0.3 ml aliquot of sample was taken and added to a 30 ml Universal glass vial with a 24 mm polypropylene screw cap. The sample was then adjusted to pH 1 by the addition of H2SO4, to convert the GHB (I) present to the lactone, GBL (II) via intramolecular esterification. A 1.0 ml aliquot of a 1.0 M hydroxylamine HCl solution and 0.2 ml of 12 M sodium hydroxide solution was then added. The resulting mixture was then mixed gently by hand to form the hydroxamate derivative (III). Upon the addition of 0.2 ml of ferric chloride, a purple-colored complex (IV) is then formed instantly."
You'd have to carry around a little kit with all these pre-made solutions (plus some pH paper to get step 1 right). The 'app' part is just using your cell phone as a crude spectrophotometer to get a rough estimate. Also, colored drinks would be a problem. The idea here seems to be more related to 'in the field' analysis for forensic law enforcement without the need to transport samples to a lab.
Incidentally alcohol is low-quality drug with nasty side effects, even though its use is socially normalized. I group it with morphine derivatives, as alcohol triggers several opiate-response pathways, accounting for some of its addictive properties. The yearly death toll of the 'alcohol epidemic' is also comparable to the yearly death toll of the 'opiate epidemic'.
Oh god I hope law enforcement doesn't decide to jump in on this as a cost-cutting measure (that they don't need) that would result in evidentiary and potentially constitutional issues. Most LE departments have arrangements that give them access to far more accurate results from, say, GC/MS testing, and performed by those who does testing and analysis for a living. The police in America at least has a pretty poor record on using pseudoscientific methods to build a case while leaving the easy and proven part of scientific testing - sending rape kits and such DNA collected to labs - on the backburner. And of course none of this is going to actually help the police since reporting rates and clearance rates for rape and sexual assault remain very low and by the time a report comes in, the evidence may no longer exist.
The focus on GHB/GBL seems... lacking in coverage, considering that there's a whole range of water/alcohol soluble substances that is easier to carry (in powder or pill form, instead of liquid) and doesn't have the taste problem GHB/GBL has when mixed drinks tend to drown out the chemical taste of Midazolam or, if push comes to shove, research chemicals based off existing formulations such as Nifoxipam represent just the tip of the iceberg in the analogues of just one category of potential "date rape drugs", quotes because without question the likes of Midazolam have contributed much more to the health and well-being of patients than as the moral panic du jour once again that overshadows its utility.
And I would posit that alcohol is not viewed as an epidemic in part because those who drink tend to know what they're drinking, while there's virtually no street demand for fentanyl and its analogues and the supply-side demand is generated entirely by the failed war on drugs that targets the supply side aggressively enough so that the golden rule of prohibition kicked in and the most potent and easiest to carry form of the prohibited substance becomes what the supply side focuses on. Regular, non-opiate-naive users were overdosing and dying, which is very much an aberration when it comes to overdoses generally. And we've utterly failed at implementing anything more than the bare minimum in terms of harm reduction while politicians go out of their way to blame everyone but themselves. It's effectively a government sanctioned epidemic. If you want to kick off your week on a shitty note, read Inspector Generals' reports on DOJ and the DEA specifically. However impractical, this is at least an attempt at putting a harm reduction product on the market, and should be applauded as such. It's more than what congress have managed to do for god knows how long.
Comments
This looks more like an app for law enforcement than something someone would take to a bar. The alcohol sample has to be processed as follows (see Fig 1, materials and methods):
You'd have to carry around a little kit with all these pre-made solutions (plus some pH paper to get step 1 right). The 'app' part is just using your cell phone as a crude spectrophotometer to get a rough estimate. Also, colored drinks would be a problem. The idea here seems to be more related to 'in the field' analysis for forensic law enforcement without the need to transport samples to a lab.
Incidentally alcohol is low-quality drug with nasty side effects, even though its use is socially normalized. I group it with morphine derivatives, as alcohol triggers several opiate-response pathways, accounting for some of its addictive properties. The yearly death toll of the 'alcohol epidemic' is also comparable to the yearly death toll of the 'opiate epidemic'.
Oh god I hope law enforcement doesn't decide to jump in on this as a cost-cutting measure (that they don't need) that would result in evidentiary and potentially constitutional issues. Most LE departments have arrangements that give them access to far more accurate results from, say, GC/MS testing, and performed by those who does testing and analysis for a living. The police in America at least has a pretty poor record on using pseudoscientific methods to build a case while leaving the easy and proven part of scientific testing - sending rape kits and such DNA collected to labs - on the backburner. And of course none of this is going to actually help the police since reporting rates and clearance rates for rape and sexual assault remain very low and by the time a report comes in, the evidence may no longer exist.
The focus on GHB/GBL seems... lacking in coverage, considering that there's a whole range of water/alcohol soluble substances that is easier to carry (in powder or pill form, instead of liquid) and doesn't have the taste problem GHB/GBL has when mixed drinks tend to drown out the chemical taste of Midazolam or, if push comes to shove, research chemicals based off existing formulations such as Nifoxipam represent just the tip of the iceberg in the analogues of just one category of potential "date rape drugs", quotes because without question the likes of Midazolam have contributed much more to the health and well-being of patients than as the moral panic du jour once again that overshadows its utility.
And I would posit that alcohol is not viewed as an epidemic in part because those who drink tend to know what they're drinking, while there's virtually no street demand for fentanyl and its analogues and the supply-side demand is generated entirely by the failed war on drugs that targets the supply side aggressively enough so that the golden rule of prohibition kicked in and the most potent and easiest to carry form of the prohibited substance becomes what the supply side focuses on. Regular, non-opiate-naive users were overdosing and dying, which is very much an aberration when it comes to overdoses generally. And we've utterly failed at implementing anything more than the bare minimum in terms of harm reduction while politicians go out of their way to blame everyone but themselves. It's effectively a government sanctioned epidemic. If you want to kick off your week on a shitty note, read Inspector Generals' reports on DOJ and the DEA specifically. However impractical, this is at least an attempt at putting a harm reduction product on the market, and should be applauded as such. It's more than what congress have managed to do for god knows how long.