"I think my drink was spiked, but I can’t know for sure." A rueful smile – they can weather the embarrassment. But for others, there is no reason to smile.
"I think my drink was spiked, but I can’t know for sure." A rueful smile – they can weather the embarrassment. But for others, there is no reason to smile.
The many stories of these incidents are unclear; an obliterated night, a single story told by witnesses. For some these stories are fairly innocuous.
They may shrug, wondering why, after only two drinks, they acted so strangely and couldn’t remember anything the next day. "I’m not certain," they say.
This is not a casual badge of honour for those who have woken up next to a stranger, with no knowledge of how they got there. Shame, sorrow and regret can last longer than just one night.
Dr Rudi Marx has been practicing medicine in Grahamstown for 40 years. Situated at the top of High Street at the practice of Marx, Bennett and Partners sees 300 patients a day.
A large number of these are students. Between 2000 and 2005 Dr Marx saw far more cases of spiked drinks than he has in the last five years and no victims have sought help at his practice since 2007.
Marx credits the public’s growing awareness as well as the regulation of date rape drugs such as Rohypnol and Dormican. Manufacturers have been forced to add blue dye to these products making a sabotaged drink easy to spot.
Meanwhile the growing publicity around date rape has meant men and women guard their drinks more carefully. Rohypnol, the infamous ‘roofie’, contains flunitrazepam.
For those suffering from insomnia this powerful sedative brings a peaceful night’s sleep. But, subjected to it against your will, Rohypnol can cause an inability to walk, talk or remember anything after it is consumed.
This factor, anterograde amnesia, makes it particularly attractive as a weapon of date rape. Michael Naidoo, senior lecturer in Pharmacology at Rhodes, says that while Rohypnol is “scary, it is very controlled”.
Behind every Grahamstown pharmacist’s counter sits a schedule seven register so under South Africa’s National Drug Policy any pharmaceutical which can be abused is carefully controlled by these maroon-bound books.
Checked sporadically by health department officials and balanced every three months, they meticulously record who buys drugs like Rohypnol, and how many.
Pharmacists Jane Bladen of RET Butler’s Pharmacy and Wimpie Bosch of Grahamstown Pharmacy both say that it’s highly unlikely that students are buying off-the-counter or prescription medicines for recreational purposes, they are just too tightly controlled.
While it is virtually impossible to acquire these drugs legally a small black market of prescription medication is said to flourishon campus.
As a lecturer and residence warden Naidoo has found that “in my experience Rohypnol is prescribed to Sandton mums who are overwrought, and mum is so under the influence she doesn’t notice when a few go missing”.
These drugs tend to circulate on campus. Along with other prescription medication, like Ritalin, they are used for recreational purposes or “academic doping”.
However the idea that only drugs can be used to spike drinks is misleading. In his experience Naidoo has found that alcohol is the most common “uninhibitor” used by pranksters and predators.
Vodka, as it is colourless, has an indistinctive taste and an alcohol content of at least 35%, it is regularly slipped into the drinks of friends who need to ‘loosen up a bit more’.
While he says that most of these cases are motivated by mischief some are motivated by malice. These incidents often involve groups of boys competing in the dehumanising game of hunt the grunt in which they compete to see who can take the ugliest girl home or at digs formals to which a specific group of girls is invited and targeted.
There is a common perception among students that eyedrops are used to spike drinks. “You cannot spike a person’s drink with eye-drops,” Bladen says firmly.
Yet many internet sources contradict this; saying that some brands of eye-drops and nasal sprays contain central nervous suppressants which, in conjunction with alcohol, have the same effect as a roofie.
Either way, an eye-drop bottle could be the innocent packaging for any substance. One such substance is liquid ecstasy. This colourless, odourless and tasteless liquid is gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB).
Originally marketed as a dietary supplement, it is being sold in Grahamstown’s CBD says Naidoo. While GHB can cause euphoria it can “make you so relaxed you stop breathing,” he says.
Overdose could result in coma. It is undetectable and acts like a date rape drug; causing a loss of inhibition and control.
In trying to gain a better picture of the scale of this problem Grocott’s Mail contacted the Dean of Students Dr Vivian de Klerk.
She responded via email: “The statistics we have in this regard are not likely to be reliable, as we typically only hear from those survivors of this despicable act who plan to take the matter further.
There must be many who would rather try to forget what happened – or who cannot remember.” She said she was not at liberty to comment on the most recent incidents.
