Germany to classify date rape drugs as weapons to ensure justice for survivors
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Nov 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM EST
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Because outside of the legal definition, I would not call those “weapons” in everyday language. They are a thing on their own…
A battery occurs when a harmful physical contact occurs. Contact with a weapon is pretty much by definition battery.
The use of such a drug in the commission of rape or other violent crimes would then be a very easily proven case. If the substance is present in a victim's body, then battery has occured, basically by definition.
Given that rape and other violent crimes that are committed with the use of such drugs may not leave other physical signs on the body of the victim, then this may be the only physical evidence.
The examination for presence of such a drug in the bloodstream is also much less intrusive than for a typical rape kit exam.
There's nothing binary or black and white in such investigations, so this is an additional avenue to provide evidence to support the prosecution of these violent criminals.
There is a possibility that the accused has nothing to do with it, you still have to prove it wasn't some third party or the victim who procured and took the drug.
Does it actually work that way in the real world?
The same can be said for MDMA, and others
Have sex, take a tiny amount of whatever drug it is, straight to cops.
[0] It might actually be easier to change a properly written law. I hate our stupid precedent-based system in the US.
If aliens land in Germany on a field and a peasant shoots them with his shotgun, he would have committed no crime in my opinion. No murder, since Aliens are not humans. It would not be illegal hunting, since aliens are not animals. Illegal discharge of a firearm?
In the US the outcome may be very different.
English common law had many good ideas. The US criminal system may be a mess, but the underlying ideas are good. Not everybody can be Norway.... ;-)
Shooting an alien robot though, then you would have something legally problematic. Ownership? Is it so advanced it's a person? But you'd probably get something like those Star Trek episodes with legal weirdness rather than any no-crime-without-law reasoning.
You are very optimistic that they will be considered animals. For example they would have to live on organic matter. And they would have to have a spine to get more protection since living things with a spine are considered more valuable (Wirbeltiere).
GROK (And using all the Roman law principles on what German law is based):
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege (Art. 103 Abs. 2 Grundgesetz + § 1 StGB) is the decisive wall that the prosecution would smash into in a real first-contact case under current German law. This principle has four sub-requirements (all must be fulfilled for a conviction):
Lex scripta – there must be a written statute → Yes, §§ 211, 212 StGB exist.
Lex certa – the statute must be sufficiently precise → “Mensch” is precise if you are Homo sapiens. It is not precise (in fact completely indeterminate) when the victim is an unknown extraterrestrial species.
Lex stricta – no punishment by analogy, no extension to the detriment of the defendant → This is the killer. → Extending the word “Mensch” in §§ 211/212 to include extraterrestrials would be a clear case of forbidden analogy that worsens the legal position of the accused. → German courts are constitutionally barred from doing this in criminal law (unlike in civil law or constitutional law, where they sometimes stretch concepts to protect victims).
Lex praevia – the law must have existed before the act → Also fulfilled, but irrelevant here.
The only difference between precedent laws and codes is that the judges act as a secondary less stable legislature.
You could very well have a mixed system where legislature has to filter and ratify court rulings to decide which become law and which do not.
In short this has nothing to do with having actual laws
GROK (And using all the Roman law principles on what German law is based):
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege (Art. 103 Abs. 2 Grundgesetz + § 1 StGB) is the decisive wall that the prosecution would smash into in a real first-contact case under current German law. This principle has four sub-requirements (all must be fulfilled for a conviction):
Lex scripta – there must be a written statute → Yes, §§ 211, 212 StGB exist.
Lex certa – the statute must be sufficiently precise → “Mensch” is precise if you are Homo sapiens. It is not precise (in fact completely indeterminate) when the victim is an unknown extraterrestrial species.
Lex stricta – no punishment by analogy, no extension to the detriment of the defendant → This is the killer. → Extending the word “Mensch” in §§ 211/212 to include extraterrestrials would be a clear case of forbidden analogy that worsens the legal position of the accused. → German courts are constitutionally barred from doing this in criminal law (unlike in civil law or constitutional law, where they sometimes stretch concepts to protect victims).
Lex praevia – the law must have existed before the act → Also fulfilled, but irrelevant here.
My best guess is that they don't see a chance to get a law to this effect passed (see also the note about the other related bill being postponed), so they are taking some measure that's in the existing jurisdiction of the ministry. That might be the ministry passing regulations to this effect, or the federal police trying to declare date rape drugs as illegal weapons
Before the change, date rape drugs would have fallen under a minimum of three years because of a separate clause.
Classifying them as weapons would also affect crimes other than rape.
Additionally, if legal substances can be used as date rape drugs, classifying them as weapons would give the police more authority to act in certain situations.
It was only this year (2025) that rape of an unconscious person who was made unconscious by the assailant (a date rape drug provision like Germany's) became a violent felony. Germany is not alone in these types of reclassifications.
California Senate Bill 268 closed the classification gap by adding certain rapes of intoxicated or unconscious victims (especially when the defendant administered the intoxicating substance) to the list of “violent felonies” under California Penal Code § 667.5. It went into effect at the beginning of 2025.
Sometimes I'm still surprised at how politicians can defend certain positions.
Well, the people who opposed it were widely decried as racist.
It's pretty easy to push things past the public when the press is complicit and the opposition is tarred and feathered as evil oppressors.
And while the intended assault is a sexual assault, a date rape drug still incapacitates you, which easily classifies as kidnapping, unlawful detainment, etc.
It is completely ridiculous to debate these nuanced laws about rape, when the punishment for participating in a brutal gang rape is a stern talking to.
Acquittals happen when there are contradictions in the evidence or victims testimonies, but when it's clear that a rape occurred and the perpetrator only gets a stern talking to - don't really know such stuff happening.
By the way, this is a statement by the city itself, not any reporting on it.
The statement explicitly states, that the guilt of the perpetrators was established. And they are guilty of raping a person which could not help themselves "Die Angeklagten der ersten und zweiten Gruppe wurden aufgrund dieser Feststellungen der Vergewaltigung unter Ausnutzung einer hilflosen Lage schuldig gesprochen".
Oh, they also filmed the rape and robbed her. The girl was 15.
Here is another article, by the German state media: https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Stadtpark-Prozess-Bun...
It confirms the same things. The highest punishment were two years and 9 months, all other perpetrators (again, there was no doubt about the guilt) received probation. It also mentions their ages as being between 16 and 20. While I can see some circumstances lessening the guilt of a 16 year old, a 20 year old knows that he is commiting a heinous crime.
Just to make it clear. There was no doubt what happened. The guilt of the perpetrator was established.
Can you honestly tell me that this was justice? That the perpetrators received a punishment worthy of their crime, which after all consistent of gang rape, robbery and filming a 15 year old getting raped.
No, that is horrible, I get less punishment for youth etc. But they know what they did and did it multiple times, and it was nearly systematic (I read about 80 witnesses? wtf is going on?)
Even if you are 15, you know what you are doing is horrible. I hope this dudes suffer in the future, horrendous human beings and the judge should be ashamed.
In such cases, I understand that people take the law into their own hands. Imagine this being your daughter.
Edit: I got more infos:
- Germany's national authorities will classify GBL and 1,4-Butanediol as weapons under German criminal law, treating administration as weapon deployment to strengthen prosecution.
- Under previous German criminal law, administering date-rape drugs was often charged as bodily harm without weapon classification, while survivor groups noted victims face memory loss complicating evidence.
- The reform permits courts to apply strengthened sentencing, allowing German prosecutors and courts to impose longer prison terms and mandatory minimums since administering drugs counts as weapon use, aiding prosecution.
- Survivors of drug-facilitated assault stand to gain a stronger legal foundation and clearer accountability, while the symbolic framing signals a cultural shift in German society prioritizing survivor protection.
- Legal experts warn that judicial training, forensic improvements and survivor-centered reporting systems are vital, while critics caution offenders may exploit loopholes or switch substances without such measures.
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Seems reasonable, complicated topic
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