Photo: Steve Prezant / Corbis
Stunned & involuntary
In Germany, more and more women are being made involuntary with a party drug. The perpetrators order the KO drops simply on the Internet.
Actually it should be a nice evening when Vanessa visited a club in Hamburg together with acquaintances six months ago. Vanessa (31) orders a vodka, dances exuberantly - but suddenly she gets dizzy. "I felt like being in cotton, " recalls the 31-year-old today. She is sick, cold sweat is on her forehead. "Just do not show, " she thinks, dragging herself to the toilet.
The last thing she remembers is the eyes of the other guests, then everything turns black. When Vanessa wakes up the next morning, she lies in her apartment on the bed, wearing only a T-shirt and jacket. She is weak, her abdomen hurts - and her panties are torn on the floor next to her.
What's going on in the club night, Vanessa can not remember - the uncertainty is the worst. The problem: KO drops are only detectable up to 72 hours in blood or urine in higher doses, in smaller doses only around 8 hours after ingestion. The perpetrators are therefore in hindsight extremely difficult to convict.
Only three days after the act, Vanessa dared to go to her gynecologist. He did not notice any injuries in the genital area and no sperm traces - she has not been raped. "But I'm wondering, did he touch me, did he want more, did he take pictures, and when I'm on the road, I look at the men who meet me on the street, and puzzle out: Was it that? "
An ad did not reimburse Vanessa. "That would not have helped, " she says. Now she is doing a therapy, has to learn to regain trust in others. And she has to learn that she is not an unwilling victim, that her body is her property. All too often the fear is her companion when she goes out in the evening.
