'Date rape drug' to be banned

2000-11-01 07:09

Pretoria - The popular date rape drug, gamma-hydroxide-butyric acid (GHB) - better known as Liquid E - which is used mainly by rave dancers and body builders will be declared illegal within the next month.

A dose of from one to five grams of this central-nervous system depressant in an alcoholic drink or cold drink, will affect the victim within 15 to 30 minutes, and render them unconscious for at least three hours.

According to Superintendent Etienne van Zyl, head of the drug unit at the police's forensic laboratory in Pretoria, GHB has replaced the stalwart, Rohypnol, as the date rape drug of choice, because it can no longer be traced in a victim's bloodstream after four hours.

Whereas Rohypnol can still be traced in the urine up to 72 hours later, there is no sign of GHB in the victim's urine after 12 hours.

"The worst effect of GHB is that the victim loses consciousness competely - it's like having sex with a corpse. She can not defend herself at all and can also not remember what happened," van Zyl said.

Any layman can manufacture GHB in his own kitchen within a few minutes.

It is very dangerous because there is no quality control and nobody knows to what strength the substance has been mixed.

According to van Zyl the police have no estimate of how many date rapes occur, because no records are kept of this offence.

The police laboratory has investigated five cases of date rape in the past three months, but could not trace substances such as Rohypnol and cetamine in blood samples.

There is a possibility that victims were drugged by GHB, but the blood samples were taken too long after the incident for the drug to be traced.

It is almost impossible to prove date rape in court, because the victims remember nothing and cannot testify.

Semen, saliva and hair are no longer decisive in proving rape - the complainant must prove that it happened without her consent.

What makes date rape so unfair, is that the element of choice is taken away. Even if the victim wanted to say yes, she couldn't.

GHB was a widely used date rape drug in America and was banned there in 1990. By April this year, 65 deaths were associated with GHB in America, 600 deaths in 1996 and 900 in 1997.

The police hope that the proposed ban on the possession of GHB and the substances with which to manufacture it, will prevent date rape and other abuses taking hold in South Africa

- Beeld