Inside Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mainly on the run, his office in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
Two establishments on Saint-Laurent Street, which are very fashionable among young partygoers, distributed free lids and detector bracelets for GHB, better known by the nickname “date-rape drug”, to their customers. Many young people, men and women, are very aware of this danger in 2023, noted The newspaper.
The chemical circles on the test bracelet turn dark blue in the presence of GHB.
As for the lids, they make it more difficult for anyone to surreptitiously introduce a substance into the glass of a potential victim.
Some bars approached for the purposes of this report, whom I asked to try these two prevention tools, preferred to decline for fear of being associated with the unfortunate phenomenon.
The owner of the Don B Comber and Le Rouge Bar clubs, Jeff Blanchette, instead jumped at the chance to try these still unusual products.
“Better to face the problem than to deny it, and if we can provide something to secure our customers, we will do it,” he says.
Louis-Philippe Messier
These customers (whose names I do not have) used the anti-GHB silicone cover.
Drug available
GHB is inexpensive, cheaper than the drink in a bar, and is frequently used by young people to experience the effects of drunkenness even when drinking very, very little.
The use of drugs as an incapacitating substance administered for criminal purposes is rarer, but still possible.
“We check the bags at the entrance, but we don’t do body searches and it’s easy to enter with a GHB capsule or pill,” explains Chanel, the manager of Don B Comber.
“We will distribute the material to both men and women,” she adds.
To facilitate the flight
“We see more and more often men being drugged with GHB by criminals who want their luxury watch, their phone or their wallet,” says Josée Lacasse, deputy director of Alco Prévention Canada. , the company that provides the lens covers and bracelets.
“Once the victim is drugged, even if he’s a big guy or a badass, it becomes easy to steal his precious objects without meeting any resistance.”
“I had a bad experience five years ago where I think I was drugged with GHB, so I always keep an eye on my customers’ drinks,” Lindsay, a bartender at Rouge Bar, tells me.
She makes a Tik Tok video of her first customers putting silicone glass covers on their cocktail glasses.
Reassuring
“No GHB in my drink!” exclaims Elodie Germond, a client of Don B Comber who, out of curiosity, analyzes a drop of her drink on her bracelet.
“We are reassured to know that these products exist, and that we have access to them… it sends a message!” said Flora Dinant.
A few days after the trial weekend, I called Mr. Blanchette back.
“The experiment was conclusive, and we will offer these products in vending machines near the bathrooms at all times, not for free to avoid waste, but at cost price,” he says.
Are these few covers and bracelets going to have an impact? Let’s hope so.
