Texas school puts date rape drug detectors in drink coasters for spring break

A Texas college is preparing for spring break by handing out drink coasters that can detect date rape drugs.

KVEO reported on Wednesday that Texas State Technical College (TSTC) was providing students with 10,000 coasters that had the ability to detect if drinks had been spiked with common date rape drugs like Rohypnol or Xanax.

"It's important for students to have these because, uh, they're going off to spring break and they're doing things that they wouldn't normally do," TSTC counselor Michael Muniz told the station.

As TSTC's website notes, the school's Harlingen campus is located "just forty miles from the beaches of South Padre Island and just north of the Mexico border."

"There's a lot of people at these bars, especially on the Island," Muniz explained. "So what we want them to do is be safe, so they can come back to school, finish college, be successful, and have successful lives."

Muniz suggested that students should take a few drops of their drinks and rub them on the coaster. If the spot turns blue, it's an indication that drugs have been added to the drink.

"I think these are a really great idea because during Spring Break, there are so many people that end up getting drugged because people drop something in their drink,” nursing student Chelsea DeBrook told KGBT. “They end up doing things that they don't remember and they can even get you know, how we're talking about, HIV and infections from the fact that they don't remember what happened."

The coasters also include messages to get the students' attention, like, "One in five college women experience sex assault."

Another message warns students: "Don't make a sex tape you won't remember."

Watch the video below from KVEO, broadcast Match 6, 2014.