Rape Drugs Deserve Stigma Of Illegality

And it's perfectly legal in North Carolina.

N.C. Sen. Virginia Foxx is introducing a much-needed bill that would not only make it illegal to ingest these chemicals, but also would classify using them to facilitate sexual assault as second-degree rape.

Date-rape drugs involve the well-known odorless, tasteless "roofies" and other drugs that affect the central nervous system.

One of these drugs, GHB, is already illegal, but there are several drugs with chemical structures that turn into GHB when they enter the body.

These GHB analogues have valid uses as solvents in industries making pharmaceuticals, magnetic tape, plastics and spandex.

A 4-liter bottle of a GHB analogue called 1,4 butanediol (1,4 BD) costs $40 from an industrial chemical supply company and sells for $8,000 on the street. A capful goes for $5 in a bar.

Some people buy it for their own consumption. Lt. Doug Scott, who heads the Cary Police Department's Diverse Operations and Enforcement Unit, said that in low doses, GHB analogues give users a drunken, out-of-body experience.

High doses can cause someone to pass out within 15-20 minutes. These are generally the doses given to someone else without their knowledge. The victim remains unconscious for three to five hours.

Trinka Porrata, a consultant on designer drug issues, said she personally hears of sexual assaults clearly involving GHB or other drugs every week and sometimes every day.

Unfortunately, the crimes are quite difficult to prosecute. These issues have made some N.C. officials and policy-makers reluctant to pass laws they'll have trouble enforcing.

Scott said that many people who are dosed with date-rape drugs don't seek help after they regain consciousness because they don't realize what has happened.

If women do suspect they were drugged and raped, he said, police have been slow to believe them in the past.

"(At first) police said, 'Yeah, right. You got raped but you can't remember?'" Scott said.

"It just didn't make sense."

It is also tough to detect the drugs in blood and urine.

GHB stays in the blood for only four hours and in urine for only 12. Women who suspect date-rape drugs should be tested immediately for the drug's presence. Still, many hospital laboratory technicians don't know to test for GHB.

And even if the woman tests positive for GHB, Scott said, it is difficult to link the dosing to another person or to prove she didn't take GHB willingly.

Even prosecuting dealers is difficult unless the police can prove that the GHB analogue was intended for consumption.

But Porrata said that these problems should not forestall the implementation of laws against GHB analogues.

"These are difficult cases and require more training for law enforcement and prosecutors in general, but they can and should be pursued," she wrote in an e-mail message.

She's exactly right.

Just because the law has practical enforcement problems shouldn't keep legislators from making GHB analogues illegal when used as drugs. GHB itself is a Schedule 1 drug, even with the same practical problems.

Other crimes are difficult to enforce, but it's absolutely necessary that they're illegal. GHB analogues are the same.

Young women (and some men) are being dosed in their ice cubes and their drinks. They're being sexually assaulted while they're unconscious, and there's no law to prevent it.

It's unconscionable to ignore Foxx's bill and let these criminals continue unrestricted.

Columnist Anne Fawcett can be reached at fawcetta@hotmail.com.