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Alliance: Newsletter: Summer 2004: Ask the Alliance

Newsletter: Summer 2004: Ask the Alliance

By [1] Tamara Pollak, RN, MPH

Dear Alliance,

If a woman is sexually assaulted and suspects that she may have been drugged, how can she find out? Does she have to report to the police?

-Maria, Manhattan

Dear Maria,

You asked a good question, and one that a lot of people need to know the answer to.

If a person suspects that she/he has been the victim of a drug-facilitated sexual assault (an assault facilitated by the use of drugs) there is in fact a test that can detect a wide variety of the drugs most commonly associated with this crime. So yes, a survivor may very well be able to find out if they were drugged. However, in order to have the Sexual Assault Drug Screen processed in New York City, the survivor will have to report the incident to the police. This is why:

The Sexual Assault Drug Screen tests a survivor’s urine for evidence that they ingested drugs commonly used to facilitate sexual assault. That urine needs to be processed by a special forensic laboratory with advanced toxicology technology. Hospitals in New York City do not have the capacity to run these tests. Moreover, the forensic laboratory cannot run the test unless it is in the context of a police investigation. In New York City, hospitals are unable to store urine – it’s a biomedical waste issue. This means that a survivor needs to decide before she/he leaves the emergency room if she wants to report to the police in order to have the Sexual Assault Drug Screen run. If a survivor leaves the emergency room without filing a report, the urine will be discarded, and the Sexual Assault Drug Screen won’t be run.

That sounds complicated, right? Here’s our advice to survivors who suspect they are the victim of a drug-facilitated sexual assault:

Like all sexual assault survivors, go to an emergency room for medical attention or go to the police. The police will transport you to a health care facility.
If you need to urinate before getting to the hospital, collect a urine specimen in a clean container and take it with you to the hospital. (The urine collection must be done within 96 hours of the assault. The earlier you can collect the urine the better).
After talking with a rape crisis advocate and medical professions, if you decide you want to have the Sexual Assault Drug Screen run, you will need to report the assault to the police before leaving the emergency room. You will be asked to sign a consent form, granting permission to for the hospital to release your urine sample to the forensic laboratory.

It is important to realize the process of having a Sexual Assault Drug Screen run is different than having a “rape kit” collected. In New York City, a survivor can have an evidence collection kit, called “rape kit” collected within 96 hours of an assault. Hospitals must store these kits for 30 days (many store the kits for longer). Survivors may decide to report their assault to the police at any point within those 30 days. Upon reporting to the police, the kit will be released for analysis.

Sincerely,

Tamara Pollak
Forensic Healthcare Program Director

Ms. Pollak is the Forensic Healthcare Program Director at the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. [[2] more]

(Read [3] other articles in this series.)

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[1]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_author_111.html
[2]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_author_111.html
[3]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_column_1.html
[4]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_article_170.html
[5]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_article_173.html

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