The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 19, 2009

Group warns of doping in bars

Stories abound of 'date-rape' drugs

By Robb Murray

MANKATO — For weeks she’d been hearing rumors about it and listening to friends describe mysteriously feeling sick, oddly sick, after a night at the bars.

The last straw, she says, is when she heard about a friend’s husband who had become so sick he lost motor function.

After that, Trinity Sol, a former Minnesota State University student who lives in Mankato, decided to do something about it.

Tonight in the downtown bar district, she and a handful of other volunteers will be handing out fliers to raise awareness about “drug-facilitated assault.” This is said to occur when someone surreptitiously places a drug inside someone else’s drink, drugs such as Rohypnol, “GHB,” Ketamine or Ecstasy.

You might find this more familiar under its more explosive name: “date rape.” Sol, however, says she’s hoping to raise awareness that it’s not just about rape, and it’s not just happening to women. Although the vast majority of cases in which someone has been drugged — or sexually assaulted while under the influence of drugs or alcohol — have involved women.

Victims report loss of motor function, nausea, blackouts, distorted sight and sound, slurred speech, tremors or convulsions, trouble breathing and coma among others.

The symptoms are similar to mere intoxication, and that has been one of the obstacles to victims reporting it to police. Victims in almost all cases had been drinking, and may themselves attribute their illness to excessive alcohol intake.

Also, the crime is rarely reported. Mankato police said there haven’t been any cases reported to them in the last 10 years.

Police say the crime is difficult to prove because of the evidence required, such as a glass containing signs of a drug or video footage showing someone putting a drug into a drink.

And if victims wait long enough to report it, the drug can easily be eliminated from their system.

Still, the anecdotal evidence is there, Sol says. And she and her friends will be out there tonight passing out fliers to bargoers.

“I have nieces,” volunteer Debra Bauer said. “How can it not be important if people are being harmed? I won’t be silent about this anymore.”

Sol says she asked a coworker how her Halloween went. The coworker said she doesn’t know because, she told Sol, she inexplicably blacked out.

“She gave me the names and numbers of 10 people who experienced the same thing during that time,” Sol said.

The volunteers will be targeting the downtown bars, they said, because that is where most of the victims they’ve talked to have claimed to have been drugged.

Attempts by The Free Press to get a response from several downtown bar owners were unsuccessful.

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