BREWER'S COASTERS A GOOD IDEA

Public Service: Rape Drug Awareness

It's so simple and makes so much sense -- a warning about the dangers of
date-rape drugs printed on coasters. It's a clear message -- watch out for each
other -- about a drug used surreptitiously to victimize women. And where better
to put those warnings than under the very glasses into which the drug could be
dropped?

That's why we're supportive of a rape drug awareness campaign launched this
week at a McMaster University student pub.

GHB -- gamma hydroxybutyrate -- is odourless and colourless. It causes
relaxation and sleepiness and disappears quickly from the system.

It's hard to get a handle on the prevalence of GHB but we know it's out there.
In the past year, a police raid uncovered the drug in a sophisticated lab in
Milton and five students at a Mountain high school got sick from ingesting it.
Max Factor heir Andrew Luster is notorious for his long-term use of the drug on
women he lured to his home.

Good for Lakeport Brewing Company for printing 50,000 of these coasters for
distribution. If it sells more Lakeport beer, so be it. The bottom line is it's
an important public service that deserves credit.