Alarm over rise in Kenya drugging cases

A lady is assisted by the public in Nairobi on February 2, 2010 after she was found unconscious and seemingly drugged by unknown persons. Criminals have been known to drug their victims before robbing them. Photo/JAMES NJUGUNA

By GATONYE GATHURA

Next time you find your drink has suddenly developed a strong uncharacteristic flavour, do not drink it. Somebody could be trying to drug you — a crime that is on the rise in many social places.

While local criminals have been known to drug their victims before robbing them, in other countries, the drugs are used on date rape victims.

Some of these drugs, such as ketamine, are manufactured for medical use but fall into the hands of criminals. Ketamine has hypnotic (sleep producing), analgesic (pain relieving), and amnesic (short term memory loss) effects, making it the drug of choice for criminals.

The use of drugs in crime has become so widespread that it forms the central theme of the International Narcotics Control Board’s annual report released on Wednesday.

The board has asked the pharmaceutical industry to develop formulations with safety features, such as dyes and flavourings, to alert possible victims to the contamination of their drinks or food.

“What is alarming is the unscrupulous way in which those drugs are used on unwitting victims. The drugs, which are usually disguised in food or drinks, are introduced in dosages that are significantly higher than the dosages used for therapeutic purposes — a practice which entails serious health risks for the victims,” says the board.

If the board gets its way, drug makers could introduce a brightly coloured dye that would alert a consumer of possible contamination or alternatively introduce a foul flavour for the same purpose.

Justifying the added cost to manufacturers, the narcotics board said the use of drugs in crime activities was reaching alarming levels.

Drugging had been associated with the sex trade, socialising in bars, and long distance travellers until about two years ago when reports of people made to empty their bank accounts and give away their cars without any recollection started to emerge.

The board singled out a family of chemicals called benzodiazepines. “Victims have been known to make purchases, sign cheques, charge credit cards, give away a motor vehicle (along with the key and registration papers), and even perceive being raped as a pleasurable experience.”

Daily Nation