After observing that young people are accustomed to wearing wristbands at festivals and other events we found inspiration to create something to help stop drink spiking.

The Sip Safe wristband detects if a drink has been spiked with drugs. The wearer simply puts a drop of their drink onto the wristband and in a short amount of time the wristband changes colour if it has been exposed to ketamine or GHB – two common drink spiking drugs.

The ability to test your own drink provides the freedom to manage risk for the wearer. Also, wearing the Sip Safe wristband provides a visual deterrent to any would be drink spiker. The design of the wristband can incorporate the logos of any brand, nightclub or festival that provides these wristbands to its patrons.

The Sip Safe wristband was first launched at the Schoolies end of exams party in November 2017. This activation was paired with market research through interviews and surveys that provided learnings on distribution, usage and engagement.

Taking this feedback on board a program of activations was launched on Monash University campuses in April of 2018. This initial program saw more than 6,000 wristbands distributed to university students along with drink safety information. Coinciding with these activations we engaged the founder of Bars of the North, a venue safety organisation, to begin a program of lobbying licensed venues.

Scaling up to order quantities of over 6,000 units has prepared the initiative to go beyond Monash University’s duty of care and to play a role of harm minimisation in the broader community.

The results to date have been nothing short of remarkable. In the space of six months we have launched a product to some of the most vulnerable young people, begun an ongoing program on university campuses where more than 6,000 wristbands have been distributed as well as garnered international media attention.

Most importantly, in a university survey 89.5% of students now have a greater awareness of drink safety after engaging with Sip Safe.

Further survey results showed:

31.6 % knew of people who’ve had their drink spiked

78.9% Could see themselves or their friends using the wristbands.

From a commercial viewpoint, the Sip Safe wristband has been registered for a trade mark and the website’s had order enquiries from 27 countries. With this shift in scale the product developed with Monash University now has the potential to do far more good in harm minimisation for young people across the globe.

The Sip Safe wristband has the ability to empower and protect a new generation, to seamlessly work from within the youth environment to put a stop to drink spiking and the predatory sexual behaviour associated with it.

The wristband is not only a product, it is a utility, it is a channel for delivering a drink safety message. It started with a university, a place with the greatest duty of care for young people and now has the opportunity to go far beyond, to leverage other social institutions to support the initiative and play their role in stopping drink spiking.

To launch Sip Safe we established the product at events for pre-university students and on university campuses before taking it to the wider audience of clubs and festivals.

We initially targeted the wristbands at the young people who are most at risk. This was found to be those celebrating at Schoolies, Australia’s biggest end of high school exams party, as those attending are away from their usual environment and are now old enough to drink alcohol.

We also introduced the product to university students at a time when they are being exposed to new environments and social dynamics. Critically, the approach to sharing the Sip Safe wristband is about providing information and utility for the individual to make their own informed decisions.

In bars, clubs and other venues, we positioned the strategy as one of responsibility for venues to provide safety precautions for their patrons to utilise.

4,500 Australians have their drink spiked every year - 40% of which lead to sexual assaults.

As a caretaker of young people Monash University set a brief to help educate and make their students and the wider community more aware of drink safety.

The objectives we set out to achieve were to instil young people with the ability to ensure their safety when socialising in various surroundings.

A key indicator of success was to see a change in awareness of drink safety by creating behavioural change at a key moment in life. This change in behaviour was crucial in the ultimate objective of preventing drink spiking before it happens.

The product has been prototyped, refined, launched, rolled out at scale and is available for commercial purchase.