Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2001
Source: Whistler Question (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001, Whistler Printing & Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.whistlerquestion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1034
Author: Chris Woodall, Question Staff Writer

WOMEN SAY DRINKS WERE DRUGGED

Four Whistler women have been drugged against their will on separate 
occasions while at Village bars in the past few weeks.

The women were at places they feel comfortable in when the assailant 
slipped something into their drinks. Within minutes each women remembers 
being hit with an overwhelming sense of physical weakness, illness, 
dizziness S and terror that they did not know why they should feel this way.

Their plight was relayed by The Question to Dale Schweighardt, president of 
Whistler's Food & Beverage Association, so bar staffs throughout town could 
be alerted that someone was doing this terrible deed.

This reporter knows two of the four women personally, and knows the third 
as a customer. We have changed their names to give them privacy while they 
describe what happened.

We are also not naming the bars these women went to.

"This is something we've been aware of in the nightclub scene for years," 
says Schweighardt. "That it's a fairly common practice is the rotten way to 
describe it."

Whistler has had this kind of bad behaviour before. "In six years here this 
is only the third instance I've heard of," the association president says. 
"It's something we don't take lightly. Fortunately, it's not as commonplace 
as in the city."

Slipping drugs in to a woman's drink is often associated with an attempt at 
a sexual assault to take advantage of the woman's weakened physical and 
mental state.

Fortunately, too, none of the women who were drugged had a sexual assault.

In each case, the women were out on the town at their favourite hangout. 
They had been drinking, but not a large amount. They are not wall flowers 
and know their limits.

It was, the women said, a hugely humiliating situation to find themselves 
completely unable to control their emotions when in the midst of the drug's 
effects: physical illness to the point of constant vomiting, a wave of 
paranoia, physical weakness lasting a long period of time S and amnesia.

The possible drug involved is Roh ypnol, called the "date rape drug," and 
known in the bar industry as a "roofie." Its effects fit the symptoms 
experienced by the Whistler women.

The drug is odourless, colourless and tasteless. It's proper use is as an 
anaesthetic agent.

"I felt more humiliated than anything," says Cathy. She's a 40-year-old 
single parent professional who's lived in Whistler many years.

"That's what prevents women from going to the health clinic: unless you 
were with friends you trusted, people would think you're just severely 
drunk. There are drunk people all the time walking around Whistler," Cathy 
says.

It's that sense of helplessness and that it's all your fault that also 
keeps women from reporting the incident to police.

None of these women did. If other women were also attacked, Whistler RCMP 
say they haven't heard from them, confirmed Carmen Magnusson, community 
policing officer.

"We may not be able to act right away, but if women report they have been 
drugged we can establish a pattern in case we do catch someone," Const. 
Magnusson says.

Cathy was out at one of her favourite pubs on a Saturday night a few weeks 
ago. She had three glasses of wine, later confirmed by the pub's bartender, 
before going down the Stroll with a girlfriend to another bar.

It was at that second bar where Cathy believes she was assaulted by a drug 
in her drink. "I had ordered a crantini. A guy asked me to dance so I left 
it unattended. Normally I would leave my drink next to someone I know. In 
the first bar, I was playing darts so I was right next to my drink the 
whole time.

"It was crowded that night. I went dancing and had a drink when I came 
back. Within a few minutes I was really light-headed and dizzy," Cathy 
recalls. "I felt I had to leave instantly."

This was the beginning of Cathy's nightmare.

"I remember stumbling really badly out of the bar. I knew I couldn't drive 
home, but I saw some friends at the first bar I went to and went there."

That was the last thing she remembers. "I had to hear about the other 
events th e next day," Cathy says.

A good thing for her that friends were at hand.

"We were winding up for the night and saw Cathy at the door," says Bill, a 
bartender at the bar Cathy had stumbled to. "It was obvious she was in no 
shape to drive, so I drove her home in her car. Another bartender drove my 
car. She just seemed overly inebriated, but I don't ever remember seeing 
Cathy like that. She's the type who can handle herself."

On the way home, Cathy became overcome with nausea. Bill had to pull the 
car over so Cathy could vomit at the side of the road. Once home she 
continued to vomit again and again.

"She kept saying, 'I don't know what's wrong, I don't know what's wrong'," 
Bill recalls. He stayed the night on Cathy's sofa once she recovered enough 
to go to bed, to be sure she'd be okay.

"Personally, I don't like to see that kind of thing happen to a friend; as 
a bartender, I don't like to see that happen to a customer; and as a 
manager it's not good for business," Bill says, thinking over on the night 
and doing a mental checklist of who was there. "We're a friendly bar and we 
have regulars who trust us."

Jennifer didn't have a friend to drive her home.

Like Cathy she was out on the town for a light evening.

In her early 30s, Jennifer is a supervisor for a large hospitality company 
in charge of a crew of staff.

Indeed, she was out because of a staff party. It was a Tuesday.

"It was just pop and chips at first, so we went to a Village bar to shoot 
some pool," Jennifer recalls. "We then went to another bar."

After one drink there, Jennifer remembers suddenly feeling very crabby and 
paranoid. "I starting thinking that any two people - it didn't matter who 
they were - were talking about me."

That was all she remembers clearly, except the upset stomach she also felt 
prompted her to go for a cab.

"But that was really hazy. I don't remember going to my room," Jennifer 
says. Next morning she got up for work, but had to leave after a couple 
hours. "Anyone who tried to talk to me longer than two se ntences and I was 
gone."

Once back home, Jennifer slept 15 hours straight. "I was totally 
disoriented. I was crying, I was so stressed. I kept asking myself, 'what's 
wrong with me?" Jennifer recalls. "I would be really hot and sweaty and 
then really cold. Parts of my body like my hands would go numb."

In all this, both Cathy and Jennifer talk of the overwhelming sense that it 
was their fault and the embarrassment that goes with that.

"I was embarrassed, I was humiliated and I thought that I'd had some sort 
of mental breakdown," Jennifer says.

It was a feeling that lasted for days. "Now I feel fine, but for a good 
three to four days I didn't feel comfortable," Jennifer says.

What also haunts the women is the "might have beens."

"So far as anybody knows, no one was following me, but I wouldn't have 
known that," Cathy says.

"If my tummy hadn't felt bad I might have blacked out in the bar," Jennifer 
says. "If I'd been 15 more minutes there, even to go to the bathroom and 
wait in line S well, it's k ind of unnerving to think about," Jennifer says.

But the drug attack has left its mark.

"Why would somebody do that to me?" Jennifer asks. "This isn't right. 
Whistler is such a laid-back place and now I have to be afraid to go to a 
bar. I always felt safe here. I guess that's the most disappointing thing.

'This is my home and I shouldn't have to be afraid!"
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart