GHB, known as the “rape drug”, is increasingly rampant across France. In La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), a student claims to have been drugged during an evening in a bar. For France 3, she confides in this traumatic experience.
Claire is a marine biology student in La Rochelle. On Thursday, October 14, the 21-year-old is going out with friends. But she no longer has any memory of the end of her evening. She is certain that a dose of GHB has been poured into her drink.
Because Claire remembers perfectly her early evening. The festivities begin at two downtown bars, where she orders two drinks. When she arrives at a third dance bar, she takes a third drink. Next, “it’s the blackout”she testifies.
“I didn’t even remember what my name was anymore”
The next day, when she wakes up at her friend’s house, she doesn’t understand why she slept at home. “I had no memories that came to mind.” Her friend tells her what happened: “Apparently I was waiting for her while she was in the bathroom, and when she came out I told her I had a terrible headache”says Claire.
“My friends then accompanied me outside, the headache was getting worse. My condition would have deteriorated in 10-15 minutes and I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t even remember how I got there. was calling.”
As her friend gives her details, Claire makes the connection with the date-rape drug, GHB.
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An odorless and colorless drug
GHB, also called “rape drug”, is odorless, colorless, and does not alter the taste of the drink. It is undetectable and causes a “chemical submission”explains D.r Laurence Vasse, addiction doctor in La Rochelle. In other words, this drug has a disinhibiting effect.
“What is special with GHB is that it plays on memory”continues the doctor. “So the victim will be drowsy. It’s a product that will relax, a bit like alcohol. It will not register what is happening”. The product works in 15 minutes and the effects last for about an hour. The victims find it difficult to demonstrate that they have been drugged, because in addition to the amnesia, the GHB disappears from the body after a dozen hours.
“It’s up to the victims to defend themselves”
The day after her party, Claire returned to the bar to report the facts to the team. “I came across the security guard who told me that this is not the first time this situation has happened, that a few cases had been counted since the end of the confinements.” Shocked, Claire asks if the bar can do anything.
“She told us that unfortunately they couldn’t do anything, that the bar is very small and that they can’t search everyone at the entrance to the bar. And that, unfortunately, it’s up to everyone to do Pay attention to what’s going on.”
An additional burden for the victims. What make the young woman angry. “Nothing is in place”she regrets. “It’s up to the victims to defend themselves alone, by buying glass protection for example. But it’s up to the bars to provide them to us!”
I have the feeling that they wanted to use me. It can fall on anyone and it was me who was targeted that evening. Someone slipped drugs into my drink, I was their target.
Claire filed a handrail
The administration of harmful substances is a misdemeanor, punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a heavy fine. For lack of evidence, Claire only filed a handrail, a step that alleged GHB victims almost never do.
The police station ensures that this is the first report of this type in Charente-Maritime: “We had not had an alert until then”specifies Eric Lortet, police commissioner in La Rochelle. “Even if this is a phenomenon that dates back several years, it is not widespread in the department to date”.
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Claire, she is convinced that other people have experienced the same thing as her in La Rochelle. She decided to share her experience on social networks, in a post that has already received dozens of comments: marks of support, but also new testimonials.
Report by Morgane Jacob, Annaëlle Blanchard and Martine Sitaud
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