Even before emblematic cases like that of Mazan, reports of chemical submission have jumped in France and psychoactive drugs are often involved, observes the drug agency, which wants measures from pharmaceutical laboratories to reduce the risk of product diversion.
Coincidence: the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM), which wanted to emphasize chemical submission before the end-of-year festivities, communicated the day after the conviction of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men for the rapes suffered by Gisele, who was knocked out with anxiolytics by her husband.
Chemical submission refers to "the administration of a psychoactive substance to a person, without their knowledge or under duress, for the purpose of committing a crime or offence, such as theft, sexual assault, rape, etc.," the agency recalls. The product can be added to a drink, to food, or injected with a syringe.
Although the number of cases remains difficult to quantify, an annual "chemical submission" survey - conducted since 2003 by the national addictovigilance network under the supervision of the ANSM - seeks to identify the substances involved, the types of attacks and their context, etc.
Its latest edition "shows a strong increase": 1,229 reports of suspicious chemical submissions in 2022, compared to 727 in 2021, and 539 in 2020, Celine Mounier, deputy to the deputy director general in charge of operations at ANSM, summarized to AFP.
This constitutes "an exponential increase in suspicious reports (+69.1% over one year)", in the context of the "European free speech movement #balancetonbar #MetooGHB" since autumn 2021, the reopening of nightclubs in February 2022 after Covid restrictions, and a government "anti-GHB" plan, according to the results of the survey.
The data, however, is just the tip of the iceberg.
"In pharmacovigilance, and particularly in addictovigilance, there is an under-reporting of cases" linked to "sensitive subjects" and, for chemical submission, to the need to "be aware of it and take steps", specified Celine Mounier.
Sexual assaults are still the most frequently reported suspicious activity in 2022, among women (63.9%) even more than among men (33.3%), followed by attempted chemical submission (9.6%), theft (7.1%), physical violence (5.1%).
The substance is most often a medication (antihistamine, sedative, benzodiazepine, antidepressant, opioid, ketamine, etc.), but sometimes something else (MDMA, cocaine, 3-MMC, GHB and its derivatives, alcohol).
– “Much to do” –
In 2022, psychoactive drugs accounted for “56.71% of the substances involved”.
Faced with the "public health issue", the ANSM announced on Friday that it would work with laboratories marketing drugs likely to be used for chemical submission to limit their diversion.
"At the beginning of January, we will send a letter to manufacturers asking them to propose modifications to drugs that make them more difficult to divert or alert potential victims," for example by playing on the visual aspect (unusual coloring or texture), an identifiable taste or smell, explained Celine Mounier.
In the past, she said, changes have been made "on a case-by-case basis" to drugs linked to chemical submissions, "rohypnol and rivotril," with "the addition of coloring agents."
The ANSM also asked its European counterparts to share best practices.
Beyond that, "after the tragic Mazan affair, perhaps we will have more reports," said Celine Mounier.
Launched in mid-October, the telephone platform of the Paris addiction monitoring center is already receiving a number of calls from women who fear they have been drugged or from doctors who fear they have misdiagnosed chemical submission.
On November 25, Michel Barnier, then Prime Minister, announced the reimbursement by Health Insurance of detection kits "in several departments", on an experimental basis.
"There is a lot to do," Caroline Darian, Gisele Pelicot's daughter and founder of the association "M'endors pas", insisted to AFP in January, calling for more training for caregivers and raising awareness of the importance of toxicological analyses and complaints.
And "people need to understand that it's not just something you put in a glass, it can be found in the family medicine cabinet," one of his brothers, David, stressed on Friday.
At the end of the year, the ANSM recalled the preventive measures, "particularly in festive settings".
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