Galery

1

"I went with my friends to a bar downtown, where we had a couple of drinks. I woke up naked in a bed." This is the story of one of the young girls who were raped after a usual night out in a club in Thessaloniki.

She remembers everything before and after the rape but in no way can she recollect the attack. This is making her nervous, confused, enraged and frightened. The girl is hallucinating, she suspects her friends but does not want to believe that they could be the rapists.

In all such cases, which are no longer rare in Greece, the means that "make the victim harmless" are synthetic drugs in liquid form. They are known as "date-rape syrups".

The specific drugs have no colour, smell and taste. They are mixed with the drink, cause memory loss and reduce the resistance of the victims. The fact that it is very difficult to establish their presence in the body because it is released from them very quickly is even more disturbing.

Last Friday, the police in Thessaloniki found a large quantity of this liquid drug, namely 1.815 kg of GBL. The authorities are concerned that the so-called "date-rape drugs" are already quite popular in Greece.

The apprehended smuggler, aged 27, had other harmful synthetic stimulants such as mephedrone also known as "meow" and crystal methamphetamine known as "poor men’s cocaine".

The GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) drug is an industrial chemical solvent which is used in the production of dyes, pesticides, plastics and inks. It has replaced GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) – the number one among the "date-rape drugs" as the main substance of "liquid ecstasy" because of its lower price and the shortage of GHB in the market. Gamma butyrolactone is sold online and it has recently become very popular in Europe, the USA and Australia.

The substance has a strong sedative effect which can make the victim unconscious and unable to resist.

In cases of rape committed under the influence of such a "syrup", the victim loses memory and experiences nausea, excessive sleepiness, convulsions, confusion, loss of control and unnatural rejection of any inhibitions. In their testimonies before the investigating authorities, the victims remember very little or nothing of the attack.

"It is very difficult to establish the presence of such substances because the victim took them only once," says a toxicologist who has recently investigated a similar case.

Very often, the victims do not file a claim immediately as a result of which their bodies are purified and the drug cannot be detected. Other symptoms and side effects of GBL and GHB are dizziness, muscle weakness, shortness of breath, problems with movement and vision, sweating, low blood pressure. They can also lead to coma or death.

The police in Thessaloniki found the 27-year-old trafficker after obtaining information from a man, aged 21, on whom they had found a small bottle containing 80 g of liquid GBL drug and a small amount of cannabis.

They found at the trafficker’s house and confiscated a bottle containing 1.735 grams of GBL, three packages of mephedrone with a total weight 130 grams, a pack of crystal methamphetamine (MDMA) weighing 29 grams, one gram of methiopropamine, two grams of cannabis, 21 narcotic pills and the sum of 615 euro which he had obtained from the sale of drugs.

More than 2.5 kg of GHB were seized in Thessaloniki in 2009.

Mephedrone which is popular among drug addicts as "meow" is a powerful synthetic stimulant that is primarily produced in China and imported in Europe as "plant fertilizer". Its price is low, making it affordable to the majority of the people who are using it. It causes tachycardia, panic attacks, muscle spasms and hallucinations, and the authorities in the United Kingdom associate it with dozens of deaths.

Crystal methamphetamine or the so-called "poor men’s cocaine" is a strong synthetic neurostimulant. Drug addicts smoke it, inhale it, inject it intravenously or drink it mixed with alcohol. The result is strong addiction. A sense of euphoria and hyperactivity is typical after taking it and side effects like weight loss, acne, fungal infections, tooth decay appear in the people who are using it.