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8 May 2006
Drink Spiking? It Used To Be Called Rape
by Angie Rankman 
A woman claiming that she has been raped after having her drink spiked at a bar or nightclub, from her initial statement to her toxicology report, is continually having her veracity tested. It is undoubtedly a traumatic ordeal, as the victim has little recollection of the event, and the drugs that they ingested are quite likely no longer detectable by police forensics. And then there's the doubt. Doubt about the victim's intentions the night before. Doubt about the drink being spiked at all, perhaps they simply had "one too many", and ended up doing something they later regretted.
Self-doubt also creeps in, and as a result many suspected rapes go unreported. And police, with very little to go on, are sometimes sluggish in following up a reported incident. The questions are difficult: Was taking the drug or the sex consensual? These latter points more often than not, especially in the popular press, are conflated and sensationalized, as though focusing on the type of drug used is the main area of concern. Critics claim that the fixation on drink spiking buries and clouds discussion on the real crime: rape. People often forget that a woman's consent is all that really matters.
One of the most recent high profile cases of drug-facilitated rape began in Brisbane, Australia with a woman, Dianne Brimble, embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime ocean cruise with friends, and ended with her death on a luxury cruise ship 2 days into the voyage. An outgoing mother of three, the circumstances in which she died were degrading and humiliating. While visiting the ship's nightclub, the woman's drink was allegedly spiked with what was believed to be a massive dose of GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid - also known as "fantasy" or "liquid ecstasy"), an illicit drug used mainly by clubbers. Friends and family claim that she had no history of drug taking, saying she was hesitant at even taking headache tablets. After being drugged, the Dianne was taken back to a cabin, where 4 men allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her. The men took photographs of the incident and showed them to friends. Dianne was found dead in the men's cabin the next morning.
Unfortunately, to Dianne's family's disbelief, the investigation into what would appear to be an extremely callous and brutal drug-facilitated rape has moved painstakingly slowly, and more incredibly, may not lead to any charges being laid. Slipshod investigation aside, the tragic story of Australian Dianne Brimble should sound a warning to women in other Western countries.
Research into drug-facilitated rape has been on the increase, but many of the findings are inconclusive and vague. One of the primary reasons for this is that determining the prevalence of drink spiking is extremely difficult. Studies are rare and frequently have questionable findings, with some claiming that as many as 1-in-4 women have been sexually assaulted after having their drink spiked. A comprehensive study of drink spiking prevalence in Australia, published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, claims: "Establishing the prevalence rates of drink spiking in Australia has been particularly controversial. This is chiefly due to a discrepancy between prevalence studies that rely on victims' disclosures versus studies that rely on the forensic [toxicological] investigation of incidents of drink spiking reported to police. Services indicate that sexual assaults involving drugs and/or alcohol are both common and on the increase, yet toxicology tests are failing to find any 'rape drugs' in samples analyzed from victims who report drink spiking to police."
Somewhat predictably, once drink-spiking was recognized as a real phenomenon, many law enforcement agencies deemed it critical to know whether a woman's drink had actually been spiked, or whether she took the drugs voluntarily; as though this alone would determine whether or not sex was censual. The problem of determining whether drugs were taken voluntarily, and conflating this with consent, is that it fails to acknowledge or pay attention to the fact that many women who are raped voluntarily consume large amounts of alcohol.
The media hasn't exactly helped in sorting out just what defines consensual sex. The salaciousness of sex and drugs is just too much for them to ignore, so the concept of date-rape drugs was always going to make bankable headlines. Bigger even than the crime latent in the act of drink spiking. Unquestionably, the fear that drink spiking induces makes for great ratings, so much so that "drink spiking" will be in the headlines far more than "rape".
Unfortunately, the bigger picture regarding rape has been obscured, and the media fueled public opinion pendulum is swinging back the other way by equating sexual consent with the voluntarily ingestion of drugs. Scary stuff indeed.
The media have been found guilty on this front before, hyping the GHB threat before it even existed. Six years ago, Canadian Professor Marianna Valverde studied the prevalence of drink spiking on two Ontario campuses and found that there were no sexual assaults involving "club drugs". Valverde criticized the college saying that they were making far too much noise in regard to date rape drugs, and not enough about the real problem of alcohol related sexual assaults. "There is so much focus on date rape drugs because the media and the Internet are constantly looking for new risks that are newsworthy," said Valverde. "This detracts attention from the real problems that can lead to date rape such as sexual assaults involving alcohol." Valverde believes that it is a matter of education bodies being influenced by the media's focus on drug-facilitated sexual assaults, and are using this information to "educate" students on its dangers without doing any fact checking. Valverde's analysis of the media's power still holds water, despite the fact that drink spiking with drugs like GHB is nowadays not an imaginary event.
Authorities now realize that drink spiking is an issue that warrants investigation, but when the media are selective in their storytelling, a "cry wolf" syndrome emerges. Police cite studies that claim some women are just unaware of how much alcohol they have consumed in a night, and mistakenly attribute the effects to drink spiking. In the end, however, it doesn't matter one iota whether she was drunk and assaulted, or drugged and assaulted - it's still assault. "If a man wants to rape a woman, he will use any means that are available," says Valverde. This is why the emphasis has to be put back onto the crime of sexual assault itself, and consensual power back to women. This can be expedited if the media pull their collective heads in and report on the realities of sexual assault, rather than the sensationalist aspects of drugs and sex.
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