Missouri House considers tougher punishments for possession of ‘date rape drugs’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Committee unanimously backed the bill; it hasn’t reached the House floor yet.
- Lawmakers cited suspected druggings by Aune and Fuchs and culture issues.
- Sponsor says tougher penalties aim to deter possession of those drugs.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, the highest-ranking Democrat in the Missouri House, was one of several lawmakers who have suspected they’d been drugged in Jefferson City.
In a March 2 committee hearing, Aune and Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, a St. Louis Democrat, shared that they suspected they were drugged in the Capital city. In an interview with The Star, Aune said she knows people to avoid.
“There are people at all levels of our government who I have been warned about,” Aune said.
Aune and Fuchs shared their stories in a committee hearing on a bill that would increase penalties for possession of several drugs that are frequently referred to as date rape drugs. Fuchs is sponsoring the bill.
Aune said she suspects she was slipped a drug last year, when she said she started feeling disoriented after drinking a club soda.
Fuchs recounted an experience in Jefferson City where she suspects that she had been drugged. Before becoming a lobbyist, a female colleague advised her to avoid going to after-work meetings and get drinks with people she doesn’t know well.
“I said, are you telling me how to go to the Capitol or how to conduct myself at a frat party?” Fuchs told the committee.
She said last year she broke her own rule and accepted a drink from someone she didn’t know well and had a hazy recollection of the rest of the night. She said she wasn’t sure she was drugged until she encountered a colleague later in the legislative session who was seemingly drugged.
“Towards the end of session, I watched it happen to one of my colleagues and I knew exactly what was happening to her,” Fuchs said.
Aune specifically mentioned former House Speaker Dean Plocher hiring former Rep. Rod Jetton, who was charged with felony assault from a 2009 sexual encounter where he choked a woman to the point of unconsciousness. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault.
“A bunch of women in my caucus certainly expressed to me how deeply uncomfortable it made them that they would have to go through this man who was involved in this very public sexual assault situation,” Aune said. “That was a person that we would have to call and text and meet if we wanted our bills to pass.”
The bill received unanimous support from the committee on March 16. It has yet to go to the floor for a vote in the House.
House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, pledged support for the bill at a press conference on March 12.
“I just want them and everybody to know I support them 1,000% doing whatever they need on that,” Patterson said.
The drugs in Fuchs’ bill are not detectable after a short period of time, leading to many cases passing without accountability. She says she hopes her bill will deter people from carrying or dealing the drugs.
“By increasing penalties, my hope is that it will deter people from having these drugs in the first place,” Fuchs said.
