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Potentially fatal date-rape drugs bring national problem to UW

Monday, August 14, 2000

By RUTH SCHUBERT AND ISAAC BAKER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

A few drops. A couple of minutes. That was all it took.

When friends found her, the University of Washington sorority member was passed out on the bathroom floor, barely breathing, her body wracked by convulsions.

What hit the woman was Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, or GHB -- a drug with a reputation.

On the all-night rave scene, it's a way to get a drunk-like high without the hangover. At crisis centers, it's a "date-rape" drug. In emergency rooms, it's a potential killer.

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In Washington, college counselors, Greek advisers, police detectives and doctors have been on the lookout for GHB and two other powerful drugs -- Rohypnol and Ketamine. They are concerned about the sometimes fatal effects of recreational use of the drugs and reports that they've been used to incapacitate women who were then sexually assaulted.

A string of incidents in Seattle this year, including the recent arrest of UW football player Jerramy Stevens on suspicion of drugging and raping a student, has raised fears that a national problem has hit home.

"It wasn't until this year that they hit this campus," said John Rhoades, executive director of the Interfraternity Council at the UW. "Unfortunately, it's also apparently present in our community."

The 22-year-old sorority sister, who asked not to be identified, wasn't raped. She took the drug at the urging of a friend who said it would make her "muscles tingly."

She didn't know that after a night of drinking beer, sampling even a small amount of GHB would trigger a dangerous chain reaction. Her blackout lasted several hours.

"When I woke up in the hospital it was the scariest thing in the world," she said. "I had to consciously think about inhaling and exhaling, and if I didn't, I felt like I was going to die."

On a national level, the drugs have been a concern for nearly a decade. They've been slipped into drinks to chemically knock out victims, often leaving them with no memory of what happened the night before.

Rohypnol, known on the street as "roofies," first showed up along the southern border of the United States in the late 1980s. A decade later, 38 states had reports of sexual assaults involving the drug.

Congress responded by passing a 1996 law that applies harsher penalties to those convicted of distributing Rohypnol to someone without that person's knowledge or consent, and with the intent to commit a violent crime. Rohypnol's use has waned in recent years, but GHB and Ketamine are gaining popularity, authorities say.

GHB has been linked to 65 deaths, including 19 since 1997, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The federal government and 25 states have restricted the use and sale of the drug.

Last year, as abuse of Ketamine soared, the government countered by classifying the anesthetic as a controlled substance.

In Seattle, police are investigating a half-dozen cases of suspected date- rape druggings that have occurred since January. Three of them, including the Stevens case, are related to UW fraternity parties.


Evidence hard to find

All of the victims suspect they were slipped drugs in cups of punch or open beverage containers, said Lt. Neil Low of the Seattle Police Department's Special Assault Unit.

"It's not like it's happening at wedding receptions," Low said. "It's at a getting-to-know-you-type party. . . . Beer blasts, that type of thing."

In King County, police have yet to document the use of a date-rape drug in any sexual assault, Low said. Across the country, collecting scientific evidence that women who were raped had been slipped these drugs has proven extraordinarily difficult.

The drugs move through the body quickly. Standard screenings in hospitals are unlikely to pick up these particular drugs. And because the drugs can make the victim black out, it often takes awhile for women to piece together what happened, delaying necessary tests.

The alleged drugging in the Stevens case happened at a party June 3 at the Sigma Chi fraternity house near the UW campus, police say.

The end-of-the-year "Jacked Up" bash drew a big crowd that included Stevens and a 19-year-old female freshman. Stevens and the victim are acquaintances and talked at the party. The woman's friends said Stevens was "coming on" to her.

The woman later told police she had five beers over the course of the evening. One of the beers, she said, was already open when someone handed it to her. It didn't take long for the woman to feel the effects. Her friends said she was "unable to keep her balance" and acted as if "she was drugged."

When the friends took her back to her sorority house around 1:30 a.m., they said they ran into Stevens and another UW football player. They were in the alley that connects Sigma Chi with the sorority.

The friends dropped the victim off at the front door. About two hours later, a UW student called 911 and reported a possible rape in progress. Police responded but didn't find the two people described by the witness.

The woman woke later that morning with no memory of what happened the night before or how she got home.

She was in her room, dressed only in her T-shirt and her bra, which was scrunched down around her waist. The fleece jacket Stevens was wearing the night before was in her room, she told detectives.

Police are still investigating. Stevens, who denies attacking the woman, has not been charged with any crime.

Sororities take precautions

Date-rape drug fears have prompted some UW sororities to take extra safety measures.

Mahsa Yeganeh said that in addition to Interfraternity Council- and Panhellenic-sponsored workshops, her sorority, Chi Omega, incorporates discussions about rape and assault prevention into their pledge-education program.

"We have discussions with our new members about what's safe," Yeganeh, a junior, said. "We tell them, 'Don't pick up a drink if you don't know what's in it, and always get your own drinks.' We always travel in groups of two or three, and we never leave a girl at a house alone."

For Yeganeh, the threat of date-rape drugs is real. A close friend believes she was slipped something in a bar in Mexico. She was lucky. When she passed out, friends were there to take her to the hospital.

Katie Smith, a UW senior who is also in a sorority, works with the university Committee on Alcohol and Substance Awareness, which offers presentations to fraternities and sororities.

"Just to be knowledgeable about what's out there is really important," Smith said.

Date-rape drugs do come up in the discussions, Smith said, but she personally views situations like the alleged drugging and rape in the Stevens case as isolated incidents.

"The majority of guys who live around here are really great guys," she said.

For at least five years, most college campuses have offered educational presentations and included drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB in literature about date rape.

In 1997, the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center introduced a national campaign at a news conference attended by Attorney General Janet Reno.

Through a partnership with the national Interfraternity Council, the center made videotapes available to fraternities and sororities across the country. The public service announcement they created took an unusual approach; it tells men that administering these drugs can be fatal.

"These are very dangerous weapons; these drugs -- you can kill someone," said Gail Abarbanel, founder and director of the Rape Treatment Center. "They're just as dangerous as a gun or a knife, particularly when they're mixed with alcohol."

Many colleges give female students lists of ways to protect themselves -- by not accepting open beers or drinks in open containers, for example. But many also focus on encouraging students to look out for their friends.

"A lot of times if they see a peer who appears to be drunk, their response is let the person sleep it off," Abarbanel said. "But in these cases it's really a medical emergency. You need to call 911."

Better testing needed

Getting a handle on the extent of the problem is nearly impossible, for a number of reasons.

Date rape is underreported in general, experts say. And testing for drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB has proven difficult -- both because of how quickly they go through the victim's system and because it took awhile for agencies to hone proper procedures for testing.

The Washington State Toxicology Lab established an in-state testing center for date-rape drugs about 18 months ago and has been sending recommended protocols for collecting samples to hospitals and agencies that work with rape victims.

"I guess it all began because a lot of hospitals were wanting their samples tested for date-rape drugs and there was really nowhere to send them," said Fiona Couper, a senior fellow at the Washington State Toxicology Lab.

Couper notes that GHB is undetectable in the blood after only eight hours and in urine after 12 hours. Testing for it also requires a specific procedure, and with Rohypnol and related drugs, the dose typically used to facilitate sexual assaults can be undetectable.

College authorities fear the documented cases represent only a fraction of actual druggings.

Dr. Mary Watts, medical director of Hall Health Center on the UW campus, said she saw a sexual-assault victim within the last month who believed she had been drugged.

The girl said she had only one beer. Tests didn't show evidence of date-rape drugs, but that doesn't mean they weren't involved, Watts said.

The 22-year-old who experimented with GHB at her UW sorority house still wonders what would have happened if she hadn't been with friends.

"If I had gone to bed, I probably wouldn't have woken up," she said.

"I definitely think people need to know what it is and that it's out there. It's scary that it can just be put in someone's drink and given to anyone."

P-I reporter Ruth Schubert can be reached at 206-448-8130 or ruthschubert@seattle-pi.com

P-I reporter Kimberly A.C. Wilson contributed to this report.

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