Clubbing Safely: Don't be a Victim of Drug and Date rape
Jolene was only 16 years old when she sneaked into a well known club in Singapore. It wasn't difficult as she looks grown up for her age and the door bouncers were not exactly checking carefully before letting girls in during ladies night. Being fiercely independent, Jolene like hanging out in such places alone. She didn't need her girl friends to cram her style. Within 15 minutes of entry, a great looking guy approached and chatted her up. He seemed nice enough and introduced himself as a trader. Jolene was impressed at how confident he carried himself and how well he spoke. 'Must be educated abroad', she thought to herself. As they chatted and flirted with each other over a few drinks, Jolene felt herself suddenly feeling dizzy. She turned to her new friend and asked him to help send her home as she thought the cocktail she was sipping on must be making her sick. The last thing she remembered was telling her gallant male friend where she lived, being helped into a cab and then she must have passed out. She woke up in a cheap motel, naked and alone. Jolene just became one of the countless and faceless girls who fell victim to a date rape.
Sexual predators often resort to the use of drugs to facilitate sexual assaults. The term "date rape" can be misleading because the person who commits the crime might not be dating the victim. Rather, it could be an acquaintance or stranger. Date or drug-facilitated sexual assaults have reached epidemic level according to a UN led Commission (Source: International Narcotics Control Board, United Nations Annual Report 24 Feb 2010). It is rampantly used in many cosmopolitan cities including Singapore. Why its rising abuse? Simply put, it is very effective, inexpensive and yet difficult to detect. The drugs often have no color, smell, or taste, so you can't tell if you are being drugged. They are easily slipped into your drink when you are not looking and will make you weak, confused and render you unconscious. Victims are often unable to refuse sex or defend yourself, and many cannot remember what happened to them in their state of stupor.
These drugs are however powerful and dangerous. They have been known to kill or cause permanent brain damage. The three most common date rape or 'club drugs' are:
Rohypnol is the trade name for flunitrazepam and also known as Circles, Forget Pill, Mexican Valium, Mind Erasers, Roofies, Trip-and-Fall and Whiteys
GHB which is short for gamma hydroxybutyric acid and also known as Easy Lay, Energy Drink, G-Juice, Liquid Ecstasy and Liquid X.
Ketamine also known as Black Hole, Kit Kat, Psychedelic Heroin, Purple, Special K and Super Acid
These drugs are very powerful. They can affect you very quickly and without your knowing. The length of time that the effects last varies but are often felt within 20 mins and the effects last for 3 to 4 hours. If you are drugged, you might look and act like someone who is drunk and have trouble standing. Your speech might be slurred and you are likely to pass out. To bystanders, you may simply look like you had one too many drinks and may not arouse suspicion.
Assuming that you are able to recognise the signs of being drugged, what should you do if you feel that you have just being drugged at a club? Take the following actions:
Approach and from help from the staff of the club you are in before you lose your ability to speak or think coherently
Write down quickly on a piece of paper or napkin with your lipstick 'Help, Drugged' and hand over to any passerby if the music is too loud and cannot hear you speak
Draw attention to yourself by throwing any items you have like a glass or even an ash tray
Activate your emergency text message (this should be pre-typed and with a predetermined recipient or recipients)
If you have an personal alarm apps in your phone or as a separate device, sound it immediately
If either your date or a stranger is trying to 'help' you leave the club, call out loudly if you can "I don't know you, leave me alone" or simply "Help, police"
Chances are, you will be safer in the club premises than being taken to another place.
And if you find yourself waking up in some hotel room, your own bed or even in a public area alone and feeling dazed, unable to remember what has happened to you, be suspicious that you may just have been a victim of a drug rape. While it is often hard to tell, there are however some signs that help you recognise that you might have been drugged:
You feel drunk and haven't drunk any alcohol -- or, you feel like the effects of drinking alcohol are stronger than usual.
You wake up feeling very hung over and disoriented or having no memory of a period of time.
You remember having a drink, but cannot recall anything after that.
You find that your clothes are torn or not on right.
You feel like you had sex, but you cannot remember it.
In such situations, the most important thing to do is to get medical care right away, and contact both the police and your family for assistance. Don't urinate, douche, bathe, brush your teeth, wash your hands, change clothes, or eat or drink before you go. These things may give vital evidence of the rape. Once hospital staff are alerted by you that you suspect you may have been raped, they will use a "rape kit" to collect evidence, which includes taking urine sample. Although date drugs often leave your system fairly quickly, some like Rohypnol stay in the body for several hours, and can be detected in the urine up to 72 hours after taking it. GHB on the other hand leaves the body in 12 hours. Finally, don't pick up or clean up where you think the assault might have occurred. There could be evidence left behind -- such as on a drinking glass or bed sheets. Get counseling and treatment as soon as possible as there are often accompanying feelings of shame, guilt, fear, shock and even suicide ideation. Drug/ Date rape happens - but it need not be you!
