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."