What Are Date-Rape Drugs and How Do You Avoid Them?
What prepares children for tomorrow? Teach them early about self-esteem and self-confidence and teach them to keep away from bad company.
You may have heard or warned that sometimes people secretly slip drugs into other people’s drinks to take advantage of them sexually?
These drugs are called “date-rape drugs.”
Date-rape, also known as “drug-facilitated sexual assault,” is any type of sexual activity that a person does not agree to. It may come from someone you know, may have just met, and/or thought you could trust.
Date-rape drugs can make people become physically weak or pass out. This is why people who want to rape someone use them, because they leave the individuals unable to protect themselves.
Many of these drugs have no colour, smell, or taste, and people often do not know that they’ve taken anything. Many times, people (usually girls or women, but not always) who have been drugged are unable to remember what happened to them.
It has no taste or smell and is sometimes colourless when dissolved in a drink. We’ve heard where some people added marijuana to the food of their female victims.
People who take it can feel very sleepy and confused and forget what happens after its effects kick in.
It can also cause weakness, trouble breathing, and make it difficult for those who have taken it to move their body. The effects of such drugs can be felt within 30 minutes of being drugged and can last for several hours.
Those type of drugs act as a central nervous system depressant and is some time prescribed for the treatment of narcolepsy (a sleep disorder).
It can cause people to throw up, slow their heart rate, and make it hard to breathe.
At high doses, it can result in a coma or death. It is a tasteless, odourless drug that can be a powder or liquid. It’s colourless when dissolved in a drink.
Mixing it with alcohol makes these effects worse.
Those drugs can take effect in 15 to 30 minutes, and the effects may last for 3 to 6 hours. It can cause hallucinations and make people feel totally out of it. It can also increase heartbeat, raise blood pressure, and cause nausea.
All Drugs Lower Your Defenses
It’s important to remember that all drugs affect how well your mind and body operate. In fact, alcohol is linked to far more date-rapes than the drugs we’ve mentioned here. And nearly all drugs of abuse make people vulnerable to being taken advantage of by impairing judgment, reducing reaction time, and clouding a person’s thinking.
And as disgusting as it is, when you don’t have your wits about you, someone may take that as an opportunity to push themselves on you.
So, What Can You Do to Avoid Date-Rape Drugs?
If you are at a party where people are drinking alcohol, you should be aware that there could be predators hoping to make you drunk or vulnerable. No matter what you are drinking, even if it’s soda or juice, people can slip drugs into your drinks. So, pour all drinks yourself and never leave them unattended (even if you have to take them into the bathroom with you). Also, be sure to stick with your friends – there’s safety in numbers.
But even if you leave your drink or leave your friends behind, know this for certain: if you are drugged and taken advantage of, it’s not your fault.
We should encourage ourselves, men and women, to create an environment where women are safe. “It’s On Us” asks each one of us to be more than a bystander, stop a sexual assault any way we can, and never blame the victim.
Bottom line: People who date-rape other people are committing a crime.