Pubdate: Wed, 26 Oct 2005
Source: Penticton Western (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Penticton Western
Contact:  http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310

MP PROPOSES PRIVATE BILL AGAINST DATE RAPE DRUGS

A 10,000-name petition calling for tougher penalties for people using 
date-rape drugs has been tabled in Parliament by Conservative MP James Moore.

"Ten thousand Canadians have spoken," said Moore, MP for Port 
Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam. "I only wish the Liberal government 
was listening."

On International Women's Day, Moore launched a university and college 
campus campaign to gain support for his plan to enact tougher laws 
against date-rape drugs.

Moore met with students from the University of Victoria and Simon 
Fraser University in Burnaby to Memorial University in St. John's and 
many in between. Student associations and Conservative campus clubs 
helped gather names.

"In recent years date-rape drugs have become a real menace to women," 
Moore said. "The thugs and cowards who use these drugs to brutalize 
women need to be fought in our laws, and women need to know how to 
protect themselves from being victimized."

Typically date-rape drugs are secretly slipped into drinks or food; 
once ingested they act rapidly, rendering the victim unconscious and 
unresponsive with little or no memory of what happens to them while 
the drug was active, he said. Traces of the drug can leave the body 
within 72 hours and often do not show up in routine toxicology screen 
or blood test.

"The problem - my thesis - is that these are unique drugs and should 
not be subject to the same sanctions as self-imposed drugs," Moore 
said. "They are used as a precursor to other crimes: assaults, rapes, 
sexual assaults and kidnappings. They need much tougher penalties."
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MAP posted-by: Beth