nice points Jeremy & Nick - there are a lot of factors that enable the body (especially in the smaller female one) to process alcohol effectively any ANY given night.

NOT A MYTH BUT AN EASY EXCUSE 4 TOO MANY GIRLS

An Urban Myth?

So when my drink was spiked, and I was raped by a man a barely knew, and my bloods came back as positive for GHB, was it all pretend?! Was it all make believe?

No.

It may not be as common as drunken girls having regrets for loosing their inhibitions, but please do not refer to the ongoing nightmare of my life as an Urban Myth

@Jeremy. Very illustrative thanks and too true, I've never heard the most outward feminist friend ever question the appropriateness of a mutual friends sexual encounter despite them being largely incoherent. Alice2. I see what you're saying, but if you could explain to me, as a male, how am I supposed to know the difference between 'enthusiastic consent' and 'clouded judgement'? Isn't all drunk activity 'clouded'?? I can't see how that could even be a moral argument, let alone a legal one. And CJ, go out to Courtney Place (or The Strip, dunno about AK) on a Saturday and just stand at a bar. I guarantee it's still very common, probably more than you realise.

Alice2 #13 - wow, that's a really fine line especially when the nature of these encounters involves both parties having consumed alcohol (and presumably having judgement impaired). I don't have an issue with apportioning blame in the cases where one party is in a position to take advantage of the other's insensibility and does so, but it seems as if the responsibility and risk (for want of a better word) is solely the male's.

So, say two people, mutually attracted, one female, one male, sit down and get drunk to the point where neither can give reliable, informed consent. Naturally, their inhibitions are also eroded to the point that they have drunken, disappointing sex. By the abovementioned logic the male is automatically guilty of sexual assault as he would've been unable to gain informed consent. How can this be considered fair?

'to be able to ignore the fact that she hasn't said yes' - I take exception to this.

If the explicit act of saying 'yes' is truly the test for rape, then approximately 100% of heterosexual men who've had sexual contact with a woman are rapists.

There's a difference between not saying 'Yes', and actively saying 'No'. Especially when not saying 'Yes' can mean 'Keep trying, this is kinda fun'. And before the legions of the all-men-are-rapists brigade swing into action, consider the following:

When discarded underwear is flying onto lampshades, the flatmates are putting in their earplugs and turning up the TV volume, and the special box of ribbed Trojans have made an appearance from the naughty drawer, it's kind of implied that there may be willingness on both parties - yet the consent question is seldom asked.

Does spontaneous passion really need to be interrupted mid-session for the question 'Do you consent to this encounter'?

People don't realise the body can't handle the same amount of alcohol all the time... So girls go out, have 4 drinks and get drunk as and then they blame it on drink spiking - get real! There isn't that many people out there that have access to these drugs. It's just for that night you're body can't handle the alcohol - if it's a REAL drink spiking, people will be unconscious (actually unconscious, not just drunk coma - you can wake people up from that EASY), they won't remember LARGE parts of the night etc. GET REAL PEOPLE!

@JC, no, she's saying that getting a person drunk or picking up a drunk person & using their drunk state to enable coercion makes any sexual act assault. There's a difference between enthusiastic, though drunken, consent and giving in to someone's influence due to clouded judgement.

This article misrepresents the study. The study says that "Widespread spiking of drinks with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB is an "urban legend" fuelled by young women unwilling to accept they have simply consumed too much alcohol"

The important word there being "widespread". In other words, drink-spiking is not as widespread a problem as is reported. It's a serious problem, but not as common as believed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6440589/Date-rape-drink-spiking-an-urban-legend.html

@scanningquietly #8

Men still buy women drinks? Damn; me and my girlfriends paying for them like chumps all these years. Where can I find these drink-buying men? In the 1960s perhaps?

A very good friend of mine had her drink spiked and had her mates not been with her and noticed her not being herself then she would ahve probably been raped.

This kind of stupidty is just offensive. Some people do drink stupid amounts and then blame that but to say that it's an urban myth is just stupid.