Content warning: The following story contains references to violence and sexual assault.
Date rape drugging, or roofying, is the use of any sedative, usually mixed with alcohol, to incapacitate a victim and facilitate a sexual assault. While anecdotal stories of suspected roofying circulate around Alaska, cases and culprits are difficult to confirm.
Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Lawrence said that’s partially due to the nature of the crime.
“Many of these medications actually their mechanism, tragically, is memory loss,” he said. “One of your neighbors will have been assaulted, and know that an assault has occurred, but have no memory of how or when or what led up to it, just because of the way that the substance itself works. So that’s the reality of the situation that we’re in,” he said.
Substances can vary and are metabolized quickly in the body. GHB or Rhohyprol, most commonly identified as date rape drugs, are tasteless and odorless. They can cause intense inebriation, dizziness, memory lapses and pain, especially when mixed with alcohol, and are used to facilitate sexual assault.
The state does not track reports of suspected drugging or a drug facilitated sexual assault, according to officials with the Alaska Department of Public Safety and Department of Health. Lawrence explained that’s due to several reasons, but does not reflect the seriousness of the issue.
“We’re talking about sexual assault in Alaska, which is a very serious problem across the whole state. And then when you add to that the element of people using a sedating or incapacitating drug in order to make it more likely that someone could be assaulted, it becomes even a more serious issue,” he said.
He said the main reason the state does not track drug facilitated sexual assault is that data collection is variable. He said incidents are both medical and legal, so information can be reported to different agencies. State agencies are limited by whether a victim decides to report to authorities and when, and whether substances are detected in their systems. “Sometimes the medical record will include that, and sometimes not. And so the absence of that data doesn’t mean that there’s not still a problem,” he said.
Homer Police Department Lieutenant Ryan Browning says the department receives calls from the community periodically to report suspected roofying.
He said they received several calls in September, and one before Halloween weekend.
“Nothing concrete…and they were all very well after the fact,” Browning said. “And one of them was almost a week later, the other one was several days (later). People reporting that they suspected they were drugged at a bar, just based on how they woke up the next morning… typically it’s, ‘I don’t remember. I was at a bar. I was drunk, and I woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck.’”
When officers notice an uptick, the department will post an alert on the Homer Police Department’s Facebook page. He urged the public to remain aware, look out for friends, take note of suspicious individuals and any unwanted or inappropriate attention, and make a report if necessary.
“I’m a big proponent of ‘you are your first responder,’ right, and keeping yourself protected and safe as much as you can, and looking for signs and things like that when we’re out doing things and having fun,” he said.
Browning said none of the recent calls resulted in a reported sexual assault in Homer.
Criminal penalties can vary, Browning said, from criminal mischief charges of intending injury or tampering with food or beverages in an attempt to injure which are felonies. Misconduct involving a controlled substance like GHB is also a felony.
Sexual violence widespread in AlaskaSexual violence is widely prevalent in Alaska. According to the 2020 Alaska Victimization Survey, the most recent data for Alaska, roughly 58% of Alaskan women had experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both in their lifetime.
Current data is limited, but Alaska Native women experience the highest rates of violence and victimization. According to the Indian Law Resource Center, Alaska Native women have reported rates of domestic violence ten times higher than the rest of the United States.
In 2024, the rate of rape in Alaska was over three times the national average, according to available data by the FBI. That year, the FBI recorded 908 instances of rape statewide, or 122.5 per 100,000 people, compared to 37.3 per 100,000 people in the United States.
Only about one third of sexual assaults nationally are reported to law enforcement, according to an analysis by RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. That’s due to a variety of reasons, including a fear of retaliation, belief it was a personal matter, or that police would not or could not do anything to help.
Women are disproportionately harmed by sexual violence, but men and LGBTQ+ populations are assault survivors as well. Most assaults, an estimated 60%, are perpetrated by someone known to the victim, according to RAINN, and 30% by a stranger.
Advocates offer resources and support, urge public awarenessLeslie Scroggin is an advocate and shelter manager at South Peninsula Haven House, a domestic violence shelter in Homer, and a member of the regional Sexual Assault Response Team.
“People typically, consistently seem to feel a sense of guilt over it,” she said. “I’ve heard people say things like it was careless of them to go out after work and to go drinking, or that they should have known better, or that type of thing. And it’s also a pretty disheartening experience, because it’s something that is just completely beyond their control… they don’t even have any sort of capacity to have any control over it.”
Scroggin said while public awareness is important, the larger issue is interrupting and addressing predatory behavior and the crisis of violence against mostly women.
“It’s the individuals that are causing harm that really need to be addressed, and they’re the ones that should be taking responsibility,” she said. “And obviously, we should always do whatever we can to protect ourselves. But that shouldn’t be something that we’re just constantly doing all the time.”
Scroggin said she has seen a rise in anecdotal reports of roofying in the summer months with increased tourism, but every situation is unique. She said people should seek medical care if they need it, and can make a report anonymously.
“The forensic nurse can do a sexual assault kit anonymously, and basically that just looks like collecting evidence and then putting it into a kit that is assigned a case number, but no one’s name will be attached to it,” she said. “So then they basically will just have that evidence there, and if the person who it got collected on should decide, you know, in three months, or even a couple of years that they would like to report then, then that will be available to them.”
Scroggin said the sooner a victim completes a sexual assault kit after an incident the better, but they have up to a week.
In Valdez, Tina Russell is a direct services coordinator with Advocates for Victims of Violence, Inc. a non-profit advocacy group and domestic violence shelter serving Valdez and the Copper River Basin region. She said she also notices an uptick in suspected date rape drugging in the summer months with more tourism and the fishing season, but has not seen any confirmed cases.
She says alcohol-related cases are more typical. “People under the influence of alcohol in a high amount, and then being taken advantage of to where they felt like they really didn’t give consent. And so they’ll come and talk to us about it, and or the hospital will call,” she said.
Russell said their organization is part of an unofficial sexual assault response team at the hospital in Valdez, and advocates, nurses and the local police department have training to respond and provide support to survivors, whether they choose to make an official report or not. “There’s so many different reasons that people don’t report,” she said. “You know, all of our statistics are so under-reported.”
Lawrence, as the chief medical officer, said Alaskans should know the risk, and look out for each other, both to prevent harm and to support people going through these experiences.
“All of us can be involved in the lives of people in a way that prevents individuals from being alone,” he said.
“All of us can be there as a neighbor or for someone who has suffered an assault,” he said. “I think that’s one of the most important things for people to have when they’ve suffered rape or sexual assault, is for there to be a caring adult who is there to walk with them through the process. That’s one of the most protective factors afterwards.”
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, resources are available:
- STAR Alaska Crisis Line: Confidential 24/7 (800) 478-8999
- AWAIC Alaska Crisis Line: (907) 272-0100
- Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN): Confidential 24/7 (800)-656-4673.
- Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault’s list of shelters
- AWARE’s list of resources
- Legal help through Alaska Legal Services Corp.