Drug Assisted Sexual Assault
There appear to be higher incidents of people complaining that they have been drugged, or they suspect their drinks were ‘spiked’ at a party, disco, club or pub, and subsequently raped and/or assaulted.
Reports nationally are showing there are a number of drugs being obtained which have the effect of making a person incapable of protecting themselves from an attacker. Some of these are prescribed drugs intended for medical treatment of sleep and anxiety disorders or for the treatment of allergies such as hay fever.
Everyone is different but there are some common experiences.
Drugs can be put into any kind of drink - not just alcohol - and they are usually not detectable in the drink.
A person may regain consciousness feeling ill, with no knowledge of what has happened, but with physical evidence that someone has raped or assaulted them.
Some of these drugs induce people to behave in ways that they would not normally. Sometimes the drug can release inhibitions and increase libido. These actions may give an attacker the opportunity to say that the person consented - the absence of a no does not mean yes.
If used drugs or alcohol have been used previous to the assault, this does not give anyone permission to have sex with them.
Drugs can make a person physically unable to protect themselves. They may be aware of what is happening to them, but paralysed by the drug.
A person may have little or no memory about what has happened. Some people later experience ‘flashbacks’ of parts of the attack. These are very frightening and people may well be very distressed at the loss of control experienced during the attack.
Some of these drugs leave the body very quickly, so that although the person may have felt ill, a blood test will not show any evidence of what has been put in a drink.
If a person decides to report to the police they need to be truthful about the amount of alcohol and/or drugs they may have used. There will be a medical examination following a report and their honesty will help with forensic testing. Remember the police are investigating an allegation, nothing else.
Rohypnol
Rohypnol is most commonly claimed to be associated with drug-assisted sexual assault and is licensed in many countries for its hypnotic qualities. It is tasteless, odourless and colourless and dissolves in liquid. After administration is it slowly metabolised and can be detected in urine for at least 72 hours.
GHB
This has been licensed in Europe as an anaesthetic agent and alcohol substitute for some years. It has been controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act as a class C substance since 2003. GHB has been implicated in sexual assaults in the UK, other parts of Europe, and the US. It is rapidly metabolised, with a half-life of around 30 minutes and is undetectable in urine after 12 hours. It may be possible to detect it for very much longer in hair.
Gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1, 4-butanediol (1,4-B) are interconvertible forms of GHB that are rapidly metabolised to GHB after ingestion. They therefore produce effects that are identical to those of GHB. GBL is commonly used as a cleaning fluid and as an industrial solvent. It is also used as a precursor in the chemical synthesis of GHB. GBL is not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Ketamine
Ketamine has been available since the 1960s as an anaesthetic agent and is a licensed medicinal product in the UK. It acts by blocking the action of glutamate and, at low doses, produces euphoria coupled with feelings of dissociation. It has been implicated as a weapon in drug facilitated sexual assault and has been controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, as a class C substance, since 1st January 2006.
Other
The central nervous system stimulants most commonly associated with drug facilitated sexual assault are cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy).
The exact boundaries of the phenomenon of drug assisted rape are by no means certain, and markedly different definitions of the conduct involved exist. In 2002, for example, the Joint Inspection Report into the Investigation and Prosecution of Cases involving Allegations of Rape (Joint Inspection Report, 2002) described drug assisted rape as a situation in which drugs, including alcohol, are purposely used to secure a sexual assault. Thus, unlike the prototypical perception, which focuses on particular types of drugs, predominantly Rohypnol and GHB, the Joint Inspection Report definition expands to include recreational and prescription drugs, as well as alcohol, within its ambit. Nonetheless, this approach is still relatively narrow as it is based upon the use of drugs as part of a deliberate strategy that is adopted by the defendant in order to facilitate intercourse.
By contrast, the Sturman Report into Drug Assisted Sexual Assault, which was conducted for the Home Office in 2000, adopts a far broader approach in which drug assisted rape is defined as ‘a situation where a person’s ability to consent or refuse consent is impaired as a result of drugs’ (Sturman, 2000, p. 10). Here the emphasis is not on the defendant’s actions or purpose but on the victim’s state of mind and their ability to give consent. As such, this approach has the potential to embrace a far wider range of situations, including those involving self-induced intoxication, than either the public perception of drug assisted rape or the definition adopted by the Joint Inspection Report.
It is apparent, therefore, that there is wide divergence between these different definitions, each of which reflects a competing perspective on the essential characteristics of drug assisted rape. But a clear understanding of the nature of the problem is necessary as the basis of an evaluation of the extent to which this conduct is accommodated within the existing framework of sexual offences. At the one extreme, the typical construction offers few problems for the current law whilst at the other, the wide definition adopted by the Sturman Report leads inexorably to the conclusion that the current law is wholly insufficient to address the problems of drug assisted rape. As such, the first aim of this research is to ‘unpick’ the conduct involved in order to gain an understanding of the wrong that is at the heart of drug assisted rape so that a more accurate assessment can be made of the efficacy of the existing law to tackle the problem.
Operation Matisse Findings 2006
• In total, 120 cases were submitted for examination.
• 119 of the 120 victims had reportedly been drinking alcohol. However alcohol was only detected in 62 (52%) cases (see para 3.2).
• In 22 out of the 62 (35%) of these cases blood alcohol levels at the time of the incident were estimated to be greater than 200 mg% or greater i.e. more than 2-3 times the driving limit of 80 mg% (mg% = milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood).
• In 57(48%) cases controlled or prescribed drugs were detected.
• Cannabis and cocaine were the most commonly detected drugs (in 20% and 17% of cases respectively).
• The combination of drugs and alcohol would exacerbate intoxication.
• Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) was not detected in any of the submitted cases.
• Gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB) was detected in two cases.
• 10 cases were suspected drug-assisted sexual assaults in which a sedative or disinhibiting drug was detected which either had been given to the victim by an alleged assailant or where the victim denied its legitimate use.
• In 11 other cases drug-assisted sexual assault could not be discounted due to a lack of clarity surrounding the circumstances of the case.