Students warned about date-rape drugs

Salisbury (MD) University has alerted its students to date rape drugs Friday after two separate incidents where alleged rapes occurred with the chemicals' help.

A visiting University of South Carolina student, age unknown, says she was slipped a drug and raped this past weekend while visiting one of the Milford Street apartments, said Salisbury Police Cpl. Rich Kaiser.

That same night, a Salisbury University student, whose age is unknown, was allegedly rendered unconscious by a similar drug in a different apartment, said SU Police Chief Edwin Lashley.

"(Both) said they consumed a minute amount of alcohol and completely passed out," Lashley said.

The university sent a e-mail out to all of its students stating that drinks should never be left alone, or accepted from strangers, and to watch out for friends.

That advice was echoed by Jennifer Berkman, director of the university's Student Health Services.

"Don't leave your friends alone, Don't leave that one straggler who says, 'Oh, I'll get a ride back.' We go on the symptoms they describe to us," Berkman said. "If a student says, 'I had two beers, but can't remember the rest of the night and my friends carried me home and then felt completely out of it for 24 to 48 hours,' then we know."

Police have a non-student suspect in one of the incidents, but no suspects in the second incident.

Reference:
Salisbury University Students Warned Over Date Rape Drugs