Date rape is not a new phenomenon. It just makes itself much more high tech and in some cases anonymous than ever before. A few decades back, date rape occurred when a man and woman found themselves alone and a little too aroused. The man would choose to push past here stop signs and get what he wanted. The idea was that later he would claim that she had asked for it and then felt guilty. If both partners were of age and had a dating history, many times the ploy worked.
In more obvious cases, the man would target some woman in a bar and ply her with an abundance of alcohol. He would persuade her to let him drive her home because she was drunk. After leaving the bar, he would take her to some remote place and rape her. This often led to no charges against the man because of the shame the woman felt. In other cases, she simply had become too drunk to know the rapist and be sure of who it was that had raped her.
Today, date rape almost always refers to what happens when someone takes a date rape drug like Rohypnol, called Roofies; Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate, known as GHB; and Ketamine Hydrochloride. These drugs are put into a woman's drink (once in a while it is put into a man's drink) to render her to intoxicated to resist any assault. The rapist(s) will then "help" her from the bar or club. Once inside his vehicle, he is free to do whatever he wants to the helpless victim. She will in some cases know what is happening, but will be unable to do anything about it.
Since these drugs are tasteless, colorless, and odorless, until recently a person could have no sure way of telling if they were in a drink or not until the effects kicked in. The only way available to keep it from happening to you was to simply do things to protect yourself.
The first way to defend yourself is to never drink from a glass that you have not kept a constant watch on. If you left it to dance, go to the bathroom, answer the phone, or whatever, get a fresh drink and get rid of that one. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are at risk because most environments have both and other patrons do not know what you are drinking. When you seem drunk, they will think that you are.
Only go out with groups of trusted friends who have agreed to look after each other. Do not let them leave you alone to pair off with other people. If you are left alone, find an immediate safe way to get home.
There is good news on the horizon. A company called Drink Safe Technologies has created test strips and coasters that can detect these three drugs. They are not cheap because you have to buy them in bulk. Most require at least a purchase of 24 and some 10,000. They range in price from $.45 to about $1.50 each. So, on a single item basis they are reasonable. When they are put into vending machines to be sold individually which is sure to be coming soon, the number of date rapes from these demented people should drop dramatically. You can get more information about these strips at Drink Safe Technology.
As always, the best defense is to watch out for yourself. No one will take of you as carefully as you will. Unless you have the test strips, never let anyone you do not completely know and trust get or hold a drink for you.
