Will Edible Cannabis be the New Date Rape Drug of Choice?
One of the major problems with the legalization of cannabis has been the perfusion of edible cannabis in kid friendly candies, cookies, gummies and chocolates. This, of course has resulted in a dramatic increase of children admitted to hospital ERs for treatment of THC overdose.
But in addition to accidental pediatric overdoses, edibles can also be used to incapacitate people in order to make them vulnerable to drug facilitated sexual assaults (DFSAs).
The Problems with Edibles
Prolonged Effects of Edible Cannabis
An Ideal Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) Drug?
As you can read from the above Table, unsuspecting people who consume these delicious looking cakes and candies laced with THC experience drowsiness, fatigue, weakness, numbness, and memory problems, all which facilitate a sexual assault. It also makes the victim a less believable witness because of memory loss.
Currently cannabis is already the number 2 drug, after alcohol, detected in DFSAs. Initially is would be a hard drug to administer surreptitiously as it would have had to have been smoked, and it is difficult to get people to smoke if they don't want to.
But with all the delicious edibles you can easily order on line, I would expect the use of them to increase significantly in DFSAs.
Case Reports
There have been a few DFSA reported where the perpetrator used edibles on their victims. In one case the perp infused Nutella with THC oil to give to his young victims.
Conclusions
Even before the wide and easy accessibility of edible cannabis, THC was the second most common drug detected in sexual assault victims, after alcohol. THC shares many of the same effects as alcohol in DFSAs and may supplant alcohol as the drug of choice as it is easier to administer and very flexible to use in its edible form.
Wigmore on Cannabis
A section of my book on cannabis is about the problems with edibles.
Irwin Law Publishers
All my books are published by Irwin Law.
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References
Friese, B., Slater, M.D., Annechino, R., and Battles, R.S., "Teen Use of Marijuana Edibles: A Focus Group of an Emerging Issue." Journal of Primary Prevention, 37: 303-309, 2016
Jones, A.W., Kugelberg, F.C., Holmgren, A.H., and Ahlner, J. "Occurrence of Ethanol and Other Drugs in Blood and Urine Specimens from Female Victims of Alleged Sexual Assault", Forensic Science International, 181: 40-46, 2008
Scott-Ham, M., and Burton, F.C., "Toxicological Findings in Cases of Alleged Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault in the United Kingdom Over a 3 Year Period." Journal of Clinical and Forensic Medicine, 12: 175-86, 2005
Executive Director specializing in Substance Abuse Prevention and Behavioral Health
10 个月Great article. Thanks for sharing