BAR COASTERS URGE WOMEN TO BEWARE OF DATE RAPE DRUGS

Trust Your Instincts. Plan Ahead. Watch Out For Each Other.

Those are some of the messages a new bar coaster campaign aims at
women to prevent them from falling prey to rapists who use drugs to
subdue their victims.

"People think 'it's not going to happen to me, it's not going to
happen here,'" said Renee Rowley, a 21-year-old St. Lawrence College
student who's launching the campaign for the Assault Response and Care
Centre.

"We want women to be aware of date rape drugs."

The campaign, which begins early next month, will put 10,000 coasters
in bars in Brockville and across the region, from Kemptville to
Gananoque to Smiths Falls.

The assault centre has received only a half-dozen reports from women
of drug-related assaults in the past two years but staff believe many
more women have been victims.

A minority of all sexual assaults are reported, but centre staff
believe women who are drugged and raped are even less likely to speak
out, co-ordinator Ev Dales said. The shame and guilt victims feel at
being assaulted is combined with the confusion of not being able to
trust their own memory.

There are no statistics to say how often it happens.

"The thing about date rape drugs is it happens, we know it happens,
but the effects of the drug often leave the victim not remembering
what happened," Rowley said. "The drugs only stay in the system for 72
hours.

"It can take a week for them to remember little bits and pieces of
what happened - by then it's too late."

The key is prevention.

Don't leave a drink unattended. Never accept a drink from a stranger.
Don't leave with someone who isn't known and trusted. Watch out for
friends. Look for signs of drugging, including sudden intoxication
when someone has had little or no alcohol.

So-called date rape drugs are intoxicants would-be rapists slip in a
victim's drink at a bar or social gathering. Most famous are the
sedative Rohypnol or gamma hydroxy butyrate, known as GHB.

But rapists can also use over-the-counter medications that cause
drowsiness, particularly when mixed with alcohol. And alcohol itself
is the number one substance perpetrators use to subdue victims, Rowley
said.

Young women, aged 16 to 24, are most at risk.

Local OPP detachments and police in Prescott, Gananoque and Brockville
are supporting the campaign.

City police Inspector Lee MacArthur stressed that the force has
investigated only a few incidents involving date rape drugs but wants
to help get the message to women.

It's always a criminal offence to have sexual contact with someone who
can't consent, MacArthur said. But if the assailant is the drugger,
it's a serious aggravating factor.

They're difficult cases for police to investigate.

"You literally have no memory - that's the dramatic part of these
drugs," MacArthur said. "It's usually by others telling you that you
left a bar with the individual or waking up the next morning. You
realize something is wrong."

Women who think they've been drugged and assaulted shouldn't be
deterred from coming forward.

"It's not a large problem in our area, but it does happen out there,"
MacArthur said. "We don't accept people preying on individuals in this
manner."