This is a phenomenon that has continued to grow in recent weeks.
In several large French cities, in Tours and Montpellier in particular, students have been drugged without their knowledge of GHB - more commonly known as the “rapist's drug” - in bars and nightclubs.
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In Tours, authorities registered seven complaints from young women in just a few weeks.
"This is a phenomenon that we have been observing since the end of August and that we had absolutely no knowledge of in Tours before, or only through very isolated and very rare cases"
, notes Commander Frédéric Formet of the Departmental Directorate of Public Safety (DDSP).
Unclear motivations
“Yesterday I was drugged in a nightclub. 1 sec of inattention for 5 hours of blackout. Pay attention to you girls, we can never say it enough! ”
, alerted a student from Tours on Twitter on September 10.
A message that quickly had a snowball effect on social networks where testimonies abounded the following days.
“
With my girlfriend and another girl, we got drugged in a bar near Plume [Place Plumereau].
Please, watch your glasses, it does not happen to others, ”
warned another young woman.
And a third to assure:
“last night someone put GHB in a friend's glass.
Be careful".
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Manon *, a 22-year-old student from Tours who confided in
La Nouvelle République
, was also a victim of “the rapist's drug” on the night of September 9 to 10. “
I had only had two drinks before I got to this bar, and then I only had one. I only lost my eyes when I was going to dance, she remembers. After drinking it, it's the black hole ”
. A blood test the next day showed she was positive for GHB. The Stop Harassment de rue Tours association has also set about collecting the testimony of other victims via social networks.
Following the complaints lodged, an investigation was opened by the Tours public prosecutor's office.
For now, investigators prefer to remain discreet about the investigations being carried out to find the perpetrator (s).
Some aggressors would have fun observing the effects created on others by GHB ”
If Commander Formet refuses to talk about an investigation that is difficult to conduct, the latter concedes that
"the motivations of the accused (s) remain unclear",
not to say unknown. Among the complaints filed, none mentioned rape or even theft. The context of the health crisis, with the recent reopening of nightclubs, does not appear to be able to explain this growing phenomenon either.
“It doesn't seem very credible to us. Even before the confinements we did not have to deal with this, ”
emphasizes Frédéric Formet. And the latter recalled that the drug used is not systematically GHB but that
"it can sometimes be other synthetic drugs"
.
Read alsoThe rapist's drug use is now punishable by law
Tours is not the only city in France to fall victim to this scourge.
In Montpellier, for example, the General Association of Montpellier Students (Agem), sounded the alarm against GHB in student parties.
"Since the start of the academic year and the resumption of student evenings, student associations have sent us numerous testimonies of students who have been drugged with GHB",
worried the structure, which brings together some 25 associations, in a press release.
“The problem is more and more significant with a new fact, the 'rapist's drug' now often affects men, contrary to popular belief until then.
In addition to rape and physical and sexual assault, some attackers would enjoy observing the effects created on others by GHB, ”
she added.
The feminist collective Nous All 34 also warned that this substance
"is turning a lot at the moment in Montpellier".
The associations, just like the authorities, therefore call for prevention.
On some campuses,
“glass condoms”
have been distributed to students to prevent the intrusion of illicit substances into drinks.
As a reminder, administering or attempting to administer without his knowledge to a person a substance likely to alter his discernment or the control of his acts in order to commit rape or sexual assault is punished by five years. imprisonment and a 75,000 euro fine.
When the acts are committed against a fifteen-year-old minor or a particularly vulnerable person, the penalties are increased to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros.