Drug-facilitated sexual assault and robbery
- Topic
When someone may have been drugged in order to be assaulted or robbed, urine and blood samples must be taken as soon as possible.
What it is
Drug-facilitated crime is the use of a substance to leave a person unable to resist or to consent, in order to assault them sexually or rob them. Alcohol (the most common), sedatives, hypnotics, anaesthetics and other drugs are used, alone or combined. Many act quickly, erase memory and are cleared within hours, and the victim often seeks help late and with gaps in memory. Time is therefore decisive: urine and blood are collected as early as possible, and hair is useful when the report is late. Medical care and the victim's safety come first; sampling requires the victim's consent.
Key facts
- Approximate time of the event, time of the visit and time of each sample.
- The victim's account in their own words, including memory gaps.
- Signs on arrival: level of consciousness, pupils, vital signs, behaviour.
- Substances taken voluntarily, without judgement: they do not invalidate the report and they help interpretation.
Step by step
- Treat the medical emergency and secure the victim's safety; watch the airway if sedated.
- Explain the exam and the sampling and obtain informed consent.
- Collect the first urine available, even before the full exam, in two sterile containers.
- Draw blood into two tubes with preservative; clean the skin without alcohol.
- Record everything the victim took voluntarily (alcohol, medicines, other drugs) and the drugs given during care.
- Label with the date, time and who took the sample; seal, refrigerate and hand over under chain of custody.
- If the report is late, explain that hair can be collected weeks later.
Next step: what to do and document
- Treat as an emergency and apply the institutional sexual violence protocol when relevant.
- Collect urine and blood as early as possible; every hour of delay may mean a substance is no longer detected.
- Record in the chart the symptoms, the timeline and the drugs given by the health team.
- Hand the samples to the judicial police under chain of custody; Law 906 of 2004 (art. 255) makes health staff responsible for collecting, preserving and handing over evidence.
- Make the mandatory notifications and guide the victim on reporting and on the support available.
- Official text checked on 2026-11-05 at funcionpublica.gov.co.
Test yourself
Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.
What is the specimen of choice when drug-facilitated assault is suspected?
Urine, because it allows substances to be detected for longer than blood; it is collected as soon as the victim seeks help.
When is hair collected in suspected drug-facilitated assault?
When the report is late, at least four weeks after the event, cut close to the scalp, so that the relevant segment has grown out.
Why ask about substances taken voluntarily?
To interpret the results correctly; that use does not invalidate the report, and hiding it can confuse the analysis.
Elsewhere in DurgiPedia
- Mandatory reporting: public health, violence and abuse
- Informed consent: elements and how to obtain it
Connections
Educational content on forensic and legal medicine; not legal advice and no substitute for the technical guides of Colombia's National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Laws change: each page links the official text and says when it was last checked. For a real case, follow the guide in force and ask the competent authority.
Sources: Guidelines for the forensic analysis of drugs facilitating sexual assault and other criminal acts (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011); Ley 906 de 2004, Código de Procedimiento Penal (Code of Criminal Procedure) (Función Pública, Gestor Normativo, 2004).
Spotted a mistake?We are always improving for the community. Tell us what is wrong and our team will review it.Report a mistake
Representative model, for educational purposes only.