Nightclub-goers, beware of spiked drinks

Nightclub-goers, beware of spiked drinks

Claire Harvey, Contributor, Jakarta

Wendy had only taken a few sips of her cocktail when it
started.

Her face turned pale, she became drenched in sweat and she
lost control of her motor skills. The rowdy Friday night crowd in
well-known cafe in Central Jakarta suddenly began fading into
blackness.

"I need to sit down," she mumbled to her girlfriend Sue,
stumbling away from the balcony where they were standing. Wendy
only made it as far as the stairs before she had to sit down,
unable to walk any further. Panicking, Wendy's friend Sue half-
carried her outside, where she collapsed on the pavement. Sue
told the security guards she believed Wendy's drink had been
drugged.

Drink-spiking is a well known phenomenon in bars and
nightclubs in most of the world's big cities, and now it seems
the trend may be catching on in Jakarta.

Often it is the precursor to a drug-assisted sexual assault. A
woman leaves her drink unattended for a minute, or accepts a
drink from a friendly stranger. Unbeknownst to her, the drink is
drugged and she is quickly rendered incapable of defending
herself -- her physical strength is drained, her vision becomes
black or blurry, she may even faint.

The next thing she knows, the victim wakes up from
unconsciousness, ten or twelve hours later, with a terrible
feeling that she may have been raped.

The attackers take advantage of the women's apparently
inebriated state, says drug expert Paul Dillon, who provides drug
and alcohol awareness training for the Indonesia-Australia
Special Training Project.

"When these drugs are combined with alcohol, the victim
suddenly appears very intoxicated and looks like they're drunk.
People who use these drugs to commit sexual assaults spike the
drink, then wait until the victim appears drunk, then they help
her out of the club," says Dillon, spokesman for the Australian
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

The Indonesia-Australia Special Training project, funded by
the Australian government's aid agency AusAid, trains law
enforcement officers, bureaucrats and rehabilitation workers in
the dangers of various types of drugs and alcohol.

Drug-assisted sexual assaults are on the rise in Australia and
New Zealand. In recent months police in New Zealand have received
dozens of reports of attacks, and 23 cases are being investigated
in the regional city of Hamilton alone.

In the Australian city of Brisbane, 22 women have reported
having their drinks spiked in bars and clubs, and similar cases
are being investigated by police in Perth and Melbourne.

A United Kingdom body, the Drug Rape Trust, trains police and
legal authorities to recognize the characteristics of drug-
assisted sexual assault, and campaigns for the rights of victims.

The Trust, a registered charity headed by Detective Chief
Inspector Peter Sturman, is developing a "swizzle stick" which
can detect traces of drugs in alcoholic drinks.

Since 1999, seven British men have been convicted of drug
rape, thanks largely to the research of Detective Sturman, and
the Drug Rape Trust has just released a guide for prosecutors on
how to pursue suspected assailants. It advises bar-goers to stick
with friends at bars, clubs and parties, to nominate one of the
group to watch everyone's drinks carefully, and to only accept
drinks from people they trust.

"This can happen to men as well as women," the Trust's website
warns. "If you begin to feel really drunk after only a drink or
two, seek help from a trusted friend, or a member of the club
management. It is important to get to a place of safety as soon
as possible."

People who fear they have been assaulted should carefully try
and remember where they were when they were drugged and find out
if anyone saw them during that time. They should examine their
own bodies for signs of trauma or assault, and consider reporting
the suspected assault to police. Importantly, taking a urine
sample can often be the only crucial evidence that a drugging
occurred.

A variety of drugs can be used in these attacks. The most
famous is Rohypnol, a brand name for the sedative Flunitrazepam
which has been blamed for hundreds of assaults in the United
States. Rohypnol is no longer available in many countries, but
similar drugs are Mogadon, Valium and Temazepam. Symptoms of
these drugs include slurred speech, a feeling of intoxication,
difficulty in walking and impaired judgment. Another drug
sometimes used is gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a central nervous
system sedative, also known as Grievous Bodily Harm, which is
odorless and tasteless and can be dissolved in any liquid. GHB
can cause severe drowsiness, dizziness, nausea and even coma.
Ketamine, or Special K, is also used. This anesthetic, developed
for use on animals, is a popular party drug which at heavy doses
can cause delirium and amnesia.

Wendy and Sue, both foreigners fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, had
been at the cafe for less than an hour when Wendy's symptoms
began.

Just minutes earlier, Wendy had left her margarita unattended
on a bar of the cafe's balcony area, overlooking the dance floor,
for a few minutes while she went to the bathroom.

When she returned, a group of men were standing right next to
Sue, directly in front of Wendy's cocktail. One of the men
offered to share his barstool with Wendy, but she declined.

Wendy took a few sips and within minutes was feeling dreadful
-- and after Sue had helped her out of the bar she returned to
confront the men, with security in tow.

"What did you put in my friend's drink?" Sue shouted, to the
intense interest of everyone within hearing distance. The men
calmly denied it and inquired where Wendy was. Enraged, Sue
continued making a scene, pleading with the security guards
search the men's bags. Eventually, realizing she was getting
nowhere, Sue left, taking Wendy home in a taxi.

"I don't know if I was drugged or not," Wendy said a few days
after the incident. "I've got no proof, so I don't want to accuse
an innocent person of drugging me. It's just that I can't think
of any other explanation for what happened."

"Within a few hours I was feeling fine, but when I got home I
crashed into a really deep sleep. I slept for more than 12
hours."

"I'm so thankful I was with a friend and not by myself. I just
want other people to be warned of the danger. It's a pretty easy
thing to avoid; don't put your drink down, make sure if you have
to go to the toilet you don't leave your drink alone, don't
accept drinks from people unless you go up to the bar with them
and see them buy the drink."

Only a week earlier, Wendy had received an email from an
acquaintance, reporting a woman who suspected she was drugged at
a trendy nightclub at a five-star hotel.

The woman, who had accepted a drink from one of a group of men
wearing flashy clothes and jewelry, fell unconscious in the club.
Her male companions confronted the group of men who had bought
her the drink, but they only replied: "Where is she, bitch?"
before leaving the club.

Sheri Lawson from the Center Against Sexual Assault, based in
Melbourne, says licensed premises must take responsibility for
the safety of patrons.

"Often these druggings are done by men who are known to the
victim -- they are friends or acquaintances," Lawson says. "And
often the drinks are spiked not with drugs but with alcohol -- so
bartenders have to be very vigilant about people who order
double-shots of drinks, or pour shots of hard liquor into other
drinks like cocktails."

Paul Dillon from the Australia-Indonesia Special Project says
Indonesia's burgeoning culture of drinking at bars and clubs may
be partly to blame. "So many young people -- even young Muslims
-- are drinking heavily in Indonesia now," Dillon says.
"Sometimes people -- especially young women -- simply
underestimate the effect that alcohol can have," he says.

"That makes for a less exciting story, but it's very important
to realize that not all these cases are druggings. Alcohol is a
very serious drug in its own right."