Progesterex: A New Date Rape Drug?

There have been a lot of e-mails circulating this week about a new buzz word: "progesterex." The word on the cyber street is that it is a new drug that is used in conjunction with Rohypnol and GHB, the date rape drugs. Progesterex is a very strong drug used to sterilize horses. When used in conjunction with a date rape drug it is said that the victim will not only be raped without any recollection of the event, she will also wake up permanently sterilized for the rest of her life!

Although it is certainly feasible that there is yet another way for a person to terrorize and suppress another human being for their own gain the idea that there is a drug that could sterilize a human being so easily without the normal surgical procedure seems less feasible.

While the spiking of people's drinks and date rape drugs are very serious issues, the idea that these drugs are being used in conjunction with progesterex or any other sterilization drug appears to be false and should therefore be ignored.

It can be considered that while these e-mails use scare tactics for amusement or confusion the e-mails have brought the problem of date rape drugs back into the watchful eye of the public. But does this actually help to alleviate the problem?

A recent study has shown that the main problem in the incident of date rape cases has actually been excessive alcohol rather than date rape drugs which were found in only a few cases and only to women who were drinking to excess. Only two out of 120 cases examined by the Association of the Chief of Police Officers found forensic evidence of "GHB", the other drug widely linked with drug rape incidents. But 119 of the 120 alleged victims admitted they had been drinking alcohol. Although this study does not take in regard the victims who do not come forward to the police for numerous reasons one of them being that they may not remember the incident after the drug has been administered

This study should not be used to take the blame away from the perpetrator and on to the victim but should be taken as a word of caution of the problems and concern of excessive alcohol for both men and women. Excessive drinking has become a serious problem in our culture. The main problem I feel is that we are brought up into a society that just accepts binge drinking as a normal routine part of life rather than the ridiculous and dangerous waste of time that it actually is.