Date Rape Drugs Analysis

Words: 1934
Pages: 8

Legalization of Date Rape Drugs
“The sexes are at war” according to Camille Paglia, author of “Rape: A Bigger Danger Then Feminists Know” (2). The number of date rape cases is on the rise, especially among college students. Paglia claims that the cause for this is women not being careful around men. However, feminist like Susan Jacoby, author of “Common Decency”, claims that is more of a social cause. According to research the causes are women not being self-aware, the media and the leading cause being alcohol and drug use. A solution to this problem would be to further educate young men and women on exactly what date rape is and how it can be prevented.
Women, specifically college women, are not being self-aware of the situations happening
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Like alcohol, drugs distort an individual’s ability to fend off a sexual attack. Many times, the drug use is voluntary, but it is becoming common for attackers to slip date rape drugs into victim drink when they are not looking. Common drugs used for date rapes are Rohypnol, Gamma Hydroxybutyrate and Ketamine (Crawford, Wright, and Birchmeier 262). Date rape drugs are exactly what Former NFL player Darren Sharper used to rape two women after meeting them at a club. The news article states that sharper met the two women at a club and asked them to go to a party with him. However, on the way to the party sharper stopped by his hotel room and the women went to his room with him. Sharper offered them a drink that had been spiked with the drug Ambien. The women woke up hours later after being raped by Sharper. Cases similar to this one are not uncommon in the U.S. In fact, over 1,000 nationwide allegations of drug-facilitated rapes were reported in 2002 to the United States Drug Rape Trust (Crawford,Wright, and Birchmeier 262). Unfortunately, these are just the reported cases as many rapes go …show more content…
This is attributed to how many individuals drink alcohol or use drugs on a regular basis and usually they consume too much of the substances. Once too much is consumed, alcohol and drugs harms an individual’s abilities to fend off an attacker. Like mentioned earlier, most of the time the alcohol and drug use is voluntary. Other times a date rape drug can easily be slipped in to an unsuspecting woman’s drink. Studies have proven that alcohol use is a “consistent behavior associated with sexual victimization” (Lawyer et al. 453). Among college students it is easy to see why alcohol and drugs are the leading causes for date rape. College campuses are full of young adults that spend most of their time going to parties and consuming alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, as Paglia states “College men are at their hormonal peak” (para. 8). When hormones mix with alcohol and drug, the outcome likely will not be good. Additionally, when alcohol and drugs are involved the chance of the rapist getting away with date rape goes up since the victim may not remember or be confused about whether she got raped or not. Individuals need to be aware that drugs and alcohol are the leading causes of date rape before they go out and decided to get drunk or