Germany plans to treat the use of date rape drugs like the use of weapons in prosecutions as part of measures to ensure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“We classify date rape drugs, which are increasingly used as a widespread tool in crimes, as weapons. This creates the basis for significantly stricter prosecutions,” Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said on Friday. “We are committed to clear consequences and consistent enforcement. Women should feel safe and be able to move freely everywhere.”
Nearly 54,000 women and girls were the victims of sexual offences in Germany in 2024 – an increase of 2.1% on the previous year – of which nearly 36% were victims of rape and sexual assault.
Maybe someone more educated than me on the topic can be more descriptive of how it would be classified. Would it not be a chemical weapon by definition?
This does not matter. In a criminal context weapon usually means something capable of inflicting great harm as a tool commit or execure a crime. If you steal something while having a screwdriver in your backpack you are screwed (literally) since you could have used it for executing the robbery. While the rules here may not be that strict (possession of said drugs while commuting sexual assault) using drugs to commit sexual assault of any form would be the same as using a knife to force the victim to not resist. There are no further classifications like chemical or mechanical weapon, since it does not matter.
In a logical world it would be. But criminally I don’t think anywhere differentiates type of weapon other than “firearm” and “deadly”.
They need to fully separate it from date rape too. Back in my younger days I knew 3 different dudes who got dosed out at bars. I highly doubt they were intended rape victims, but a lot of robberies start out with someone slipping something into your drink, then getting you in the parking lot.
Drugging anyone for anyone reason should qualify as attempted manslaughter. Which, counter intuitively is a real charge.
It makes it easier to charge rapists too because you don’t have to prove rape, and can even charge them before a rape happens. If you can prove rape, throw it on top as additional charges.
Drugging someone is maybe not manslaughter (depends on what drug you use and what dose you use) but it is always assault and can be prosecuted as such.
I think the primary distinction is that a weapon in a criminal context is typically something that is used to threaten/coerce someone, or to enable you to cause (more/more severe) physical harm/incapacitation in a physical altercation.
Date rape drugs aren’t used to threaten/coerce people, and whilst they can cause harm, it is generally not the intended goal when someone uses them. And intent/willingness to use a weapon to physically harm someone, in my opinion, is a relevant distinction to relatively “”“peacefully”“” knocking someone out. Of course committing date rape is still an utterly horrific thing, and people who do it should be charged and held accountable to the fullest extent of justice, but it is still different from threatening someone with a weapon and forcing yourself on them. (Also, whilst I have no actual data on this, it seems logical to me that a conscious victim is far more likely to receive (more serious) injuries as they struggle, vs. an unconscious one)
So whilst I agree that classifying date rape drugs as weapons is a good move, there definitely are relevant distinctions as to why drugs are typically not considered weapons.
The thing about “date rape drugs” is that plenty, I would say most of, their users are not using them for SA. GHB for example, is/was a pretty common party drug, especially in the gay scene. “Roofies” or Flunitrazepam, are one of the rarest drugs going these days, prescription or illicit. Xannax fits that bill these days. So depending on how the legislation is written, if these drugs are only classified as weapons in assault cases, I suppose that’s good. But I don’t agree with the further criminalization of drugs in general.
Also the most common date rape drug bar none is Alcohol
You make a good point that there aren’t more classifications, the only other one I can think of is state dependent, and that’s vehicular manslaughter.