I'm in a pretty darn good mood today, but I have a sad story to tell.

A friend of mine told me a few days ago that her sister moved to this area a recently because she had been raped in the city she came from. It had been her boyfriend's best friends, and they'd used the date rape drug to do it. She was at a party, having a good time, then she woke up the next morning in their basement with bruises all over her. Her boyfriend didn't believe her and she didn't press charges. Instead, she moved away in a hurry and has had trouble with relationships and holding down a job since then.

My friend and I learned a few lessons from her sister's experience:

1) Always keep track of your drink, wherever you are and whoever you're with. If it's out of your sight, even for a little bit, get a new one. You don't know who might have casually walked by and dropped something in it.

2) Always keep track of your friends. Apparently, her "friends" left her there instead of making sure she was ok. I would be mortified if I discovered someone I'd been with had been violated for lack of a friend stepping in and making sure they got home ok.

3) When someone seems exceptionally flighty or irresponsible, there could be some serious and deep-seated reasons behind it, rather than it being that they're just high-strung or lazy. With this knowledge, her behavior that we've criticized since before she moved here makes a heck of a lot more sense. Compassion can go a long way to making someone more comfortable with themselves.

Some resources on date rape drugs
Date Rape Drug Warning
'Roofies', The New "Date Rape" Drug of Choice
"Date Rape" Drug (Rohypnol) Frequently Asked Questions