BARS, PARTIES AND DRUGS

It's Personal Safety Issues Awareness Week at the Women's Centre on UNB
campus and the centre, opened last year, is hosting presentations,
demonstrations, videos and discussions to help promote various topics of
concern. Today and tomorrow they will be showing videos focusing on date
rape and club drugs.

The managers at The Cellar and College Hill Social Club are helping out by
serving reminders with drinks. The aim is to raise awareness of how easy
drugs can be slipped into alcoholic beverages.

Tanya McKillop, chair for the Women's Centre board, said there were a
number of rumors circulating about date rape on campus and she wanted to
provide information to students about the issue.

"I don't think people are as aware that these [drugs] are out there and
they are in the city. To what extent, even the RCMP couldn't state that,"
she said.

"It's a problem that people do have to be aware of and they have to protect
themselves and learn how to protect themselves," McKillop said.

McKillop suggests to never leave your drink unattended and if you
absolutely have to, just get a new one.

GHB, gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is an illegal drug which is often slipped into
drinks. It is most commonly known as a date rape drug although it is
sometimes used recreationally.

GHB is a central nervous depressant, which slows down breathing and heart
rate, and makes a person sleepy.

If a low dose of GHB is administered, it will make the person feel more
sociable, lightheaded and less inhibited. Higher doses can cause nausea,
vomiting, and may cause a deep coma-like sleep. In some cases, the
consequences can be fatal.

In its liquid form, GHB resembles water, having no smell and basically no
taste. It is also available as white powder or in capsule form.

According to second-year-student Jason Stanley, a member of UNB's alcohol
awareness program Drink Smart, the entire week is addressing the potential
dangers of drug and alcohol consumption and other safety issues.

"People are aware of date rape drugs to some capacity but not the actual
facts, the hard facts about what date rape drugs are, how they can be
administered, [and] the dangers," he said.

According to a 1993 Statistics Canada report, only six per cent of all
sexual assaults are reported to the police.

Scarier yet, in a 1984 study published in The International Journal of
Women's Studies, one in four Canadian women will be sexually assaulted
during her lifetime, of which half of these assaults will be against women
under the age of 16.

"The problem with these date rape drugs is that they only stay in your
system for up to 12 hours. By the time you wake up the next day it's
already gone, and by that time, it's too late to get the testing even
done," said McKillop.

One of the other main messages the centre wants to discuss is that club
drugs, such as ecstasy and ketamine, can be potentially lethal when mixed
with alcoholic beverages.

Ecstasy, another popular club drug and a hit at raves, produces feelings of
pleasure, closeness and increased sociability. However, the pill can have
strong negative effects, including anxiety or panic attacks, blurred
visions, grinding teeth, vomiting and convulsions. The drug may last for up
to six hours. Ecstasy is often regarded as a semi-safe drug but deaths have
been attributed to it. The drug itself increases body temperature, blood
pressure and heart rate. This can lead to permanent kidney or heart
failure, seizures or strokes.

"I think it's everyone's responsibility to play a part in educating
ourselves and others around us about the dangers," said Stanley.

"If you think something may have happened to you and you don't feel like
yourself, go to the doorman or a bouncer or get yourself up to the hospital
to get tested right away," McKillop said.