PREVENTION OF DRUG-FACILITATED SEXUAL ASSAULT - RISK REDUCTION STRATEGIES (excerpted from CALCASA’s Searching for Answers: Understanding and Preventing Drug-facilitated Sexual Assault)

Drug-facilitated sexual assault risk reduction efforts should focus on increasing community education on the nature and availability of the drugs used to commit this crime and also to increase awareness of the dangers of alcohol.    Awareness in this instance should include steps individuals should take when they believe they have been drugged, and what bystanders and friends should do if they believe someone has been drugged.  Prevention educators should also raise awareness about the nature of these drugs, how they are obtained or manufactured and how they are typically used.  For instance, the fact that GHB can be and is easily manufactured in garages and college laboratories by mixing key chemicals is noteworthy to provide insight into the availability of these and other substances.

In a college or university setting, the fraternity community should also be a prevention audience.  Alcohol use and abuse on campus remains a problem, however other drugs have found their way to fraternity or campus parties, thereby increasing the risk that individuals may unknowingly be slipped these drugs in a community punch bowl or in their individual beverages.

Risk reduction efforts should also focus on the rave and club scenes. As the popularity of raves increases, so does the availability and use of these drugs.  Rave attendees need to understand that these drugs are not harmless as they are repeatedly told. (T. Porrata, personal communication, April 6, 2001).  While they are under the effects of the drugs at these parties, they may fail victim to an opportunistic perpetrator.  Parents also need to understand that these parties, although alcohol free, do typically involve use of these drugs, which are taken to enhance the rave light and sound experience. Partygoers should also understand that while they are under the influence of these club drugs, they might become vulnerable to assault by someone taking advantage of their incapacitation.

Risk reduction strategies are an important element of drug-facilitated sexual assault prevention programs.  As noted previously, these programs should include information on incidence and prevalence of drug facilitated sexual assault in the local community.  The legal ramifications of intentionally drugging someone as well as those associated with having sex with someone who is unable to resist or give consent should also be stressed as well as the criteria for what constitutes consent.

Because of alcohol’s role as the single most prevalent drug used to facilitate sexual assault, prevention educators should also consider including sections in their awareness programs that discuss the incidence and prevalence of alcohol related sexual assaults.  Understanding of alcohol’s physiological effects on a person’s ability to give consent is essential.  Essential too is an increased awareness of responsible alcohol use and understanding how to reduce one’s risk of being assaulted while under the influence of alcohol.

To control the prevalence of drug-facilitated sexual assaults, education programs should be designed to increase awareness of the dangers of drugs.  Although it is unfair that the burden of risk reduction falls on victims, the following are steps to increase their awareness about drug-facilitated sexual assaults:

• Go to parties, bars and clubs in groups and use the buddy system to watch out for each other’s safety watch for signs that someone in the group is becoming intoxicated relatively quickly without having had much to drink. Also to make arrangements to have someone in the group be responsible for safely returning anyone in that condition home.

• Maintain control of their drinks and not to leave them unattended for any reason. Accept only drinks from the wait staff or bartender*.  Watch them being mixed when at all possible.

• Do not drink from drinks mixed in large containers at parties.

• Be wary of drinks having an unusually salty taste or strange odor and to also be wary of drinks that are unusually foamy or have strange residue on the surface.

• Do not accept open drink containers from anyone you don’t know.

*    It is worth noting that a Florida bartender was arrested for working as an accomplice in a drug facilitated rape scheme by lacing drinks with GHB from behind the bar. (T. Porrata, personal communication, April 9, 2001).

As recreational drug use is increasing among young people, Rohypnol, GHB, Ketamine along with other psychedelic drugs are becoming more prevalent in clubs and dance parties known as “raves.”  This being the case, club drug availability and popularity continues to grow, as does the continued belief by users that the drugs are harmless.  Rape prevention educators should also consider, as part of personal safety programs, a risk reduction and awareness section associated with club drug use.  Essential to such programs should be a primer of the drugs’ physical and psychological effects and how those effects can create an ideal situation for an opportunistic perpetrator.

Some organizations have advertised testing kits, which purportedly have the capability to detect traces of GHB in beverages.  Users can purchase these testing kits and utilize them at clubs and parties.  They will then have the ability to dip test strips into their alcoholic beverages and the strip will change colors if a form of GHB is present.  It is worth noting that law enforcement officials are not endorsing any of these products. As mentioned earlier, GHB is primarily homemade and the concoctions typically have variant ph levels, which may make them difficult to detect.  Also, people are finding chemical analogs to GHB, which they can either buy or create at home. These analogs have the same physical effects on the body that GHB, but because they are derivatives or chemical relatives of GHB they may not yet be detectable.   Since sophisticated drug laboratories cannot accurately detect some forms of homemade GHB or its analogs, it stands to reason that little faith can be placed in the ability of test strips to detect their presence either.

A Note on Prevention

Rape crisis centers are in a key position to provide primary prevention education to youth on the dangers of recreational drug and alcohol use plus the legal consequences of drug-facilitated sexual assaults.  We encourage you to partner with your local law enforcement agency in conducting these prevention programs at your local schools and college campuses.  These types of programs will not only help in educating potential victims but may also deter potential perpetrators by understanding that drug-facilitated sexual assault is a crime.

Other key aspects should focus on reducing personal risk for drug-facilitated sexual assault.  Knowing the signs of drugging, utilizing group awareness and vigilance are important to prevent the crime from being completed. However, prevention efforts should also have a broader scope to increase awareness of the existence and availability of not only these drugs but also increase the awareness of the effects of alcohol itself to facilitate this crime.   Special attention should be given to the rave and club scenes, as drug-faciliated sexual assault is a crime of opportunity. Drug use is on the rise in these settings but partygoers are not always aware of the dangers associated with their recreational use.

As rape crisis centers implement prevention and risk reduction efforts, CALCASA can assist you with technical assistance and resources from the library. We also invite you to share your program materials with CALCASA, as we work towards enhancing the rape prevention efforts throughout California.  If you require technical assistance or would like more information on this subject, please contact CALCASA at (916) 446-2520 or via e-mail at info@calcasa.org.

 Binder, R. (2001), Changing a culture: sexual assault prevention in the fraternity and sorority community, in Sexual violence on campus: policies, programs and perspectives. Ottens, A. and Hotelling, K. eds. New York: Springer.

 Binder, R. (2001), Changing a culture: sexual assault prevention in the fraternity and sorority community, in Sexual violence on campus: policies, programs and perspectives. Ottens, A. and Hotelling, K. eds. New York: Springer.

 Fouts B, & Knapp, J. (2001) A sexual assault education and risk reduction workshop for college freshmen, in Sexual violence on campus: policies, programs and perspectives. Ottens, A. and Hotelling, K. eds. New York: Springer.