Pubdate: Wed, 26 Oct 2005
Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Maple Ridge News
Contact:  http://www.mapleridgenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328
Author: Kate Trotter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

PETITION TARGETS DATE-RAPE DRUG USERS

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.

"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."

Although these drugs are controlled substances like heroin and
cocaine, possession is almost never met with jail time, and penalties
are very light, Moore said.

Moore has a Private Member's Motion on the issue before Parliament. It
recommends to the government that GHB and Rohypnol, the most common
date-rape drugs, be identified in the Criminal Code under a separate
schedule as 'date-rape drugs' with new and tougher penalties. The
motion would also establish a national initiative to educate women on
the dangers of date-rape drugs and related substances; and create a
national task force to establish new guidelines for the collection and
documentation of evidence in sexual assault investigations to
facilitate prosecutions.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin