A Shot of Prevention

In cases of rape, even more than with most crimes, successful prosecution is a poor substitute for prevention.

That’s why we invite Ventura County bar owners to follow the lead of their colleagues in Santa Barbara and take steps to warn their female patrons about the dangers of so-called date rape drugs.

The issue burst into local headlines with the recent arrest of Mussel Shoals resident Andrew Luster, 36, on 40 counts of rape and kidnapping. Authorities believe Luster met women in bars and then used the drug GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, to render them unconscious before having sex with them. Many of the attacks were photographed or videotaped, police say. Luster, great-grandson of cosmetics pioneer Max Factor, has pleaded not guilty and remains in Ventura County jail on $10 million bail.

This is the first such Ventura County case involving GHB, which can render a person unconscious in a short period of time. But it shows that even an enviably safe county like this one is not immune to this growing nationwide peril.

One Ventura rape crisis center has received dozens of calls in the past year from young women who say they were drugged and raped. Other reports of GHB abuse have popped up throughout the county, including one fatality. Last summer, a 20-year-old Cal Lutheran University student died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and GHB, the first death tied to the drug in Ventura County.

The growing threat of GHB has prompted bar owners and law enforcement agencies throughout the state to launch aggressive public awareness campaigns.

The steps being taken in Santa Barbara are simple, inexpensive and well worth emulating if they can reduce the odds of anyone suffering this living nightmare. Along the State Street strip, concerned bar owners hand out “awareness cards” and post warning signs in women’s restrooms.

“Club drugs dubbed ‘Date Rape’ drugs have become popular substances to slip into drinks and have potentially lethal consequences,” reads a framed “Party Smart” poster hanging in the women’s room at one Santa Barbara tavern. The poster offers such tips as: watch your drink, don’t accept alcohol from strangers and stay in groups. The same bar also offers lids to women customers to protect their drinks.

We agree with Constance Bryant, rape crisis program manager for Ventura’s Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, who told The Times, “Sooner or later, one of these women will sue a bar and then it will change. But I would rather not wait until that happens. We should do something now.”