Now a day there has been an increase in sexual assaults involving the use of drugs & alcohol. Sexual assault is any sexual behavior that makes any person feel uncomfortable, or scared. And it covers Rape, child sexual abuse, Indecent assault. More than 250,000 cases of rape were recorded by police annually by a United Nations statistical report. The reported data covered 65 countries.
Club drugs come into the psychoactive drugs group. They act on the central nervous system and change the mood, awareness, and how you act. Club drugs are also used as date rape drugs, to make a person unable to say no to or fight back against sexual assault. In the last few years, the club drugs have not only used in the club or party but have spread quickly to high schools & junior high schools throughout the United States. Abusing these drugs can cause serious health problems and sometimes death. When the drugs are taken with alcohol then they become more dangerous for us. They include:-
MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and it is also known as Ecstasy XTC, Adam, Molly, Hug beans, & Lovedrug. The cause effects include altered sensations, increased energy, empathy, and pleasure. When taken orally, effects start in 30 to 45 minutes and last 3 to 6 hours. GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) it is used clinically from the 1960s as an intravenous anesthetic, it is also known as G, Liquid Ecstasy, and Soap Ketamine, also known as special K, k, vitamin K, and Jet. The illicit use of GHB has historically been associated with coma, seizures, death, and drugs facilitated sexual assault. Â LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) unables the senses and causes hallucination.it was first synthesized in 1938 by a Swiss chemist, Albert Hofman. It is also known as Acid, Blotter, and Dots.
Identification
GHB in hair in a case of drug-facilitated sexual assault:- For 10 years there has been an increase in the use of GHB(Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) for sexual abuse. Â For drug-facilitated crimes, the ketamine and flunitrazepam is used with GHB. The effect of the drug depends upon the dose; A dose of 10mg/kg causes amnesia, 20-30mg/kg induce sleep, and doses of 50mg/kg or higher produce anesthesia.
Method & Materials
The hair was not cosmetically altered or treated and the cut was performed close as possible to the scalp. Then the two strands of 20cm and a less than 500mg weight of hair are collected and stored in plastic tubes at room temperature. Then, hair collected by the vertex posterior was decontaminated twice using 5ml of methylene chloride for 2min at room temperature and then cut into four 3cm proximal segments and four 2-cm distal segments. About 20mg of decontaminated hair was incubated in 0.5-ml NaOH (0.01), 16h at 56oC overnight, adding 25 µl of GHB-d6 (20 ng/ml) used as an internal standard. After cooling, the homogenate was neutralized with 50 µl of 0.01 M H2SO4. After the process of agitation and centrifugation,  evaporate the organic phase to dryness under nitrogen flow. The residue was derivatized by adding 20 µl of the BSTFA (1% TMCS) and 20 µl ethyl acetate for 20min at 600C. The aqueous washing was analyzed under the same analysis condition.
Urine Test
A urine test plays a very important role in finding the drug abuse. By the help of LC-MS method we can identify multiple abused drugs, like benzodiazepines & new psychoactive substance in urine.
Preparation of Standard Solution
Firstly abused drug powder was dissolved to 500ng/ml with methanol to obtain a stock solution. Calibration standards contain mixtures at 12 serial concentrations and have rang from 0.125ng/ml to 200ng/ml were prepared daily for each analytical batch. These standards were stored at40C during the period of study. Multiple drug calibration curves and quality control samples were prepared together with urine samples.
 By the help of enzyme immunoassay, the urine samples were screened for benzodiazepines (CEDIA) and opiates [DRI; both CEDIA and DRI reagents were from Microgenics (Fremont, CA, USA)] using a Hitachi 7170 chemistry analyzer (Diamond Diagnostics, Holliston, MA, USA). The cut-off levels of urine screen are 200ng/ml and 300ng/ml for both benzodiazepines and opiates, respectively.
Undercover nail paints, the first fashion designer anti-rape nail paint discovered by four college students of North Carolina which detects the drug in few seconds by changing the color of the nail paint. It is named as ‘undercover colors’. It indicates that the drink has been drugged and exposed to the victim. This drug mainly focuses on the drugs like GHB, Rohypnol, Xanax, and Special K.The advantage of the undercover colors nail paint is that it is invisible so that it probably prevents would-be invaders from even trying to spike somebody’s drinks since they wouldn’t recognize who may be wearing it. It helps to prevent rape in clubs or parties. The disadvantage of this nail paint is it can detect one drink at a time and also affect the human body once a person intakes this by mistake. This nail paint helps to prevent sexual assault cases in the branch of forensic science.
How to reduce risk and protect yourself
- Do not take drinks from people you do not know.
- Drink from tamper-proof bottles and cans. Do not drink any beverages that you did not open by yourself.
- Do not share or exchange drinks with anyone.
- Do not take a drink from a punch bowl or a container that is being passed around.
- Insist on pouring or watching while any drink is mixed or prepared.
- Do not leave your drink while talking, dancing, using the restroom, or making a phone call.
- If you realize your drink has been left unattended, discard it.
If you are feeling unsafe and think you have been drugged and sexually assaulted
- Get help immediately.
- Get to a safe place.
- Ask a trusted friend to stay with you and assist you in getting the help you need.
- Call 911.
Case Study
A 24 -year-old girl go to abroad for there study and she had been studying abroad for about 1 year. During this, she met a man who became her boyfriend. During the whole year abroad sometime she woke up with a strong headache and nausea and noticed some small abrasions on one arm, similar to pricks (punctures). Despite all this, she was not too worried. She thought her confused state of mind was due to the fact of being abroad, far from home, stressed, and a hangover. After one month when she returned to Italy, she received some video clips shot by a mobile phone camera at home. And that was a sex video, in these videos, she was having sex with a boy his boyfriend, she met when she was studying abroad, but she noticed she was in a confused state of mind and she could not recall at all. And she was confirmed that she had been raped by his boyfriend under the effect of drugs. On the basis of this, she decided to have her hair analyzed. And she admitted a moderate consumption of alcohol by her but no drug intake during the period she was abroad.
References
Parikh’s Textbook of Medical Jurisprudence Forensic and Toxicology, Seventh Edition, by B V Subrahmanyam
Hei Hwa Lee, Jong Feng Lee, Shin Yu Lin, Bai Hsiun Chen, Simultaneous identification of abused drugs, benzodiazepines, and new psychoactive substances in urine by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences (2016), doi:/10.1016/j.kjms.2016.01.007
Riccardo Rossi, Massimo Lancia, Identification of GHB and morphine in hair in a case of drug-facilitated sexual assault, Forensic Science International 186, 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.01.017
2020, MAY, Undercover Nail Paints: Indicator of Date Rape Drugs in the Beverages,20
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10881768/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295966
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articals/295966
Author
Sonam Mishra
Intern at Dept. of Forensic Science & Criminal Investigation
Legal Desire Media & Insights
