A sexual assault kit and a blood test for drugs in her system found evidence of GHB and rape, police said.
As a result of this incident, posters sponsored by the University Police Department promoting awareness of chemicals commonly used in drug-related assaults such as GHB, Rohypnol, and ecstasy are decorating walls and doors campus-wide.
A booth sponsored by the sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma and the Rape, Assault, and Incest National Network (RAINN) in the Wood Center on Thursday was promoting sexual assault awareness.
UAF students working at the booth handed out cards with information about sexual assault, including a list of famous people that have been raped.
Marilyn Manson, Queen Latifah, Christina Aguilera and Eleanor Roosevelt are among those on the list.
One of the students working at the RAINN booth shared her past experience of being drugged and assaulted.
Kate Riffey, 21, a sophomore transfer from Georgia Tech working at the RAINN booth, said she was slipped a date-rape drug in her drinking water at her apartment while hanging out with roommates and friends.
"I had a dream sequence of being raped," Riffey recalled about that night. "I woke up and my body was numb, and I was really out of it."
She then went to the hospital and requested a blood test for the date-rape drugs along with the sexual assault kit.
"If you don't request a blood test, they won't give you one," Riffey said about the test for drugs. "Then you have no case."
Later that night, she was back in her apartment with the same friends, and the situation repeated itself.
"This time I tasted it in the water," Riffey said. "It hadn't dissolved completely yet."
Riffey said she was slipped GHB, the same drug that was used in the recent incident at UAF.
Keeping a close watch on beverages at all times is the easiest way to prevent any drug-assisted assault. Fred Meyer sells test strips that test liquid for predatory drugs, Riffey said.
GHB, according to the RAINN Web site, is most commonly found in the form of a clear, odorless liquid. It can also be white powder.
It sedates the body, can cause drowsiness, a slowed heart rate, nausea, unconsciousness, and coma.
"GHB has been used in the commission of sexual assaults because it renders the victim incapable of resisting, and may cause memory problems that could complicate case prosecution," the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says.
The statistics of drug-assisted sexual assaults are alarming.
In 2000, the DEA, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, seized 17 GHB laboratories in the United States, 10 of which were located in California, according to the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau (DTCVB) Web site.
Also according to the DTCVB, in 1999, drug facilitated sexual assault cases increased to nearly 23 percent of all sexual assault cases. Females made up 97 percent of the victims, the bureau says.
In 2004, there were 209,880 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assaults, according to RAINN. But 58 percent of rapes and sexual assaults in 2004 were not reported to police.
As shown by Riffey's experience, these drugs are even administered in non-alcoholic beverages.
Campus police advise students that keeping a close eye on their best defense against predatory drugs.
