Rape is a terrifying and brutal assault of a human being, whether the victim is a man or a woman, boy or girl, and of any age. The instances of date rape drugs being used for the purposes of committing sexual assault have increased exponentially since the introduction of these drugs (GHB, ketamine and Rohypnol, even ecstasy) to the U.S. in the early 1990s.
Here are the steps you need to take if you are a victim of one of these date rape drugs:
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), has been abused in the U.S. since the 1990s due to its euphoric, sedative and anabolic effects. Available over-the-counter in health food stores in the 1980s until about 1992, GHB was popular with body builders to help reduce fat and build muscle.
Today, GHB is one of the four so-called “date rape” drugs: MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine, Rohypnol, and GHB. Concern over their use to commit sexual assaults, Congress passed the “Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act of 1996,” which stiffened penalties for the use of any controlled substance to aid in sexual assault.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) states that drug rape is one of the fastest-growing crimes in America today. Some 85 percent of the drug-related rapes (men and women) are committed by someone the victim knows.
Perhaps you’ve heard the term “Hell’s Bells” in reference to a pretty plant with trumpet-shaped white, yellow, pink, or purple flowers. What you might not know is that most parts of the plant contain toxic hallucinogens, and that it has a long history of causing delirious states and death.
PCP, or phencyclidine (“angel,” “angel dust,” “upergrass,” “zombie”), and ketamine (“K,” “Special K,” “cat Valium”) are dissociative drugs that were initially developed as general anesthetics for use during surgery. These drugs distort a person’s visual and auditory perceptions and produce feelings of detachment – from the self and the environment. Although PCP and ketamine have mild-altering effects, these are not hallucinations. The proper term for PCP and ketamine, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is “dissociative anesthetics.”