Tucson, Arizona  Wednesday, 28 February 2001
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/10228Rcapdaterape.html
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX - The experience of a 17-year-old Tucson girl slipped a "date rape" drug is pushing Arizona legislators to propose new laws to protect minors.

Sally Drachman told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that she took a sip from a sports bottle at a party last year and "10 minutes later I could barely walk."

It was only because an older friend saw that she was having trouble that Drachman was taken to a hospital.

Drachman and her mother, Peggy, began pushing for changes in the law after the incident last year, when Sally was 16.

"It's not just about sex," Peggy Drachman said, noting that her daughter was not raped. She said teens get drugged for other reasons, too.

The legislation, SB 1284, will be voted on next week. One part of it would make giving any of the so-called "date rape" drugs - strong depressants that can leave a victim defenseless and often unable to remember a sexual assault - to a minor punishable by up to 27 years in prison. Existing laws set the maximum term at 12 years.

The elder Drachman explained how her daughter, a student at Sabino High School, was in a coma for about nine hours after being taken to the hospital.


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