Parents be warned: date rape is a fact of life in T&T. Attorney General Anand Ramlogan delivered the warning yesterday while piloting legislation in the Senate. He was speaking on a bill to monitor precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of narcotic drugs. Many precursor chemicals are found in ingredients used in the manufacturing and petrochemical field, the AG noted.
He said certain chemical substances made locally and which are used to produce common and everyday products, such as plastics, paint, and pharmaceuticals, could also be diverted illegally to produce drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Chemicals such as benzene and sulphuric acid were also examples of substances produced here that could be used to produce illicit drugs.
Ramlogan said the legislation did not only seek to protect T&T from “the insidious threats of external drug traffickers and terrorists but also has significant importance locally as well.” Ramlogan added, “Precursor chemicals have been known to be used in date rape drugs.” He said the Police Service’s Victim and Support Unit had confirmed cases of such sexual abuse involving one or multiple partners.
Police have had to intervene in approximately five such cases, it was confirmed. In one particularly harrowing account, the victim was with friends and was given a drink only to wake up a few hours later to discover that she was drugged and raped. These instances of sexual abuse resulting from use of illicit drugs require intensive Traumatic Incident Reduction Therapy, a report noted.
Ramlogan said, “I warn all parents over the coming Carnival period and with the Christmas and parang festivities, speak to your daughters—date rape is a fact of life in T&T.” He said the authorities had chronicled instances of young girls going out and not returning home as expected. He said when they did get home, many could hardly recall prior events and it was only when they felt pain and soreness that they realised that something had happened to them in previous hours.
He said when they felt they had blacked out during their night out, it was really because someone had “spiked” their drink—put a drug in it. Ramlogan said there were substances like Rohpynol (“Roofie”) and others which made a person delirious and induced hallucinations. Rohpynol is a white or olive green prescription drug—a sedative used in many US date rape cases. It is sold in some countries but illegal in others.
Ramlogan said he’d spoken to one girl who related her experience. While out around 1 am, he said, she felt delirious and giddy on the dance floor and all of a sudden she was encircled by a group of young men dancing around her. She related that they had held her by her arms and were taking her out of the area and she was unable—feeling as she did—to signal for help or indicate that she didn’t know them.
“So now in T&T, it’s not only about getting a designated driver when you have to go out, but also in having responsible friends, monitoring who you’re taking a drink from. “Be alive to the possibility it could be spiked and to knowing you have a personal responsibility to protect yourself from yourself. “Be alive to the possibility of this pernicious evil taking root in T&T,” Ramlogan said.
Ramlogan said many women going out now drink only from bottles which had not been opened before, to safeguard themselves. The AG said recreational drugs were now a habit, more like a badge of honour for some in T&T. He said they were present in prestigious areas and high society parties and the age of the youths using them kept getting lower and lower.
NEW TRAFFICKING TECHNIQUES
Noting cocaine is now being smuggled in wheelchair linings and in ceramic statues, Ramlogan also said he would be meeting with the Environmental Commission soon since it had been noted that rare birds from Venezuela were being used to transport drugs.
He said the birds were cut open, the drug placed in their stomachs and sewn up again and exported. He said the charges for importing the birds might be a mere $200 compared to the millions worth of “coke” in their stomach: “So we have to keep ahead of the game,” he said. Ramlogan said a unit to monitor and deal with precursor chemicals would be based at the Strategic Services Agency which would have specialist officers liaising with other agencies on the matter.
MONITORING CHEMICAL REPORTS
Ramlogan said the precursor chemical legislation was being drawn up since Government in 1995 ratified the 1988 United Nations Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Article 12 requires countries to implement measures to control and monitor the legitimate trade in drug precursors to prevent diversion of these chemicals.
“We’re therefore obligated to ensure companies resident here which import chemicals, manufacture and export legitimate products with high concentrations of precursors, account for such chemicals in their trading patterns and don’t allow items intended for licit or permissible use to become ingredients for those intended for illicit use,” he added.
“Some precursor chemicals are widely available in T&T due to our large petro-chemical and manufacturing base. It therefore raises no red flags if certain chemicals, at reasonable volumes, regularly enter and exit this country. “
