In an effort to hinder possible drink spiking ahead of the Clemson-South Carolina football game this Saturday, Clemson University’s Panhellenic Association has partnered with Overdrive Defense to hand out 500 drink spiking testing packs.
Members of Clemson Panhellenic will be handing out these kits in front of the downtown police station on Friday, Nov. 29, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. to Clemson students and the community.
“Thousands of female students are anticipated to pass by, a demographic that is frequently targeted for drink-spiking,” Overdrive Defense told The Tiger in an email.
Following local law enforcement investigating a reported rise in drink spiking occurring in downtown Clemson bars, Clemson Panhellenic contacted Overdrive Defense to support safe drinking and provide equipment for students to safely enjoy their nights out.
The company is a “drug safety and harm reduction brand committed to helping people party safely,” Overdrive Defense told The Tiger.
The kit is a “first-of-its-kind product” containing three-in-one tests that detect three of the most common drink spiking drugs: GHB, Rohypnol (also known as roofies) and ketamine.
The kits first launched last month at nationwide CVS locations, Amazon and OverdriveDefense.com. Clemson’s Panhellenic Association is the first college campus group that has partnered with the company, according to Ryan Weaver, Overdrive’s executive producer and creative lead.
“Overdrive’s tests are 99% accurate when used as directed and have a detection threshold as low as 10 ug/mL,” Weaver told The Tiger in an email.
When Overdrive was in the process of developing the defense kits, they had numerous discussions about where to focus their efforts, when The Tiger asked where the 99% accuracy statistic originates.
Overdrive found that any existing drink spiking detection products on the current market performed poorly in quality tests, came with high error rates and were unable to detect the three frequent spiking substances (GHB, Rohypnol and ketamine).
“Overdrive teamed up with the pros at UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) to run our products through various situational tests and put our strips up against everything else on the market to make sure we were packing elite power,” Weaver told The Tiger.
Weaver noted that Overdrive designed the kits to be “vibey,” “portable” and “comfortable” with the intention of people being able to take them anywhere — bars, clubs, concerts, house parties and more — to access when necessary.
“Overdrive’s founder, Brian Bordainick, has a track record of tackling stigmatized issues like acne, sexual health, and smoking cessation in his other businesses,” Weaver said. “With Overdrive, we’re bringing that logic into harm reduction and party safety.”
The kits are tested and approved by third-party labs. They contain simple instructions, two droppers to extract beverage samples (alcoholic or nonalcoholic), two water tubes and two test cards. Test results are shown in five minutes.
