Anyone who commits rape or robbery by secretly administering date-rape drugs will face a minimum of five years in prison under a new draft law approved by the German cabinet on Wednesday. The legislation, proposed by Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the SPD, is intended to reflect the extreme danger posed by these substances.
"Rapes carried out with the help of date-rape drugs are particularly insidious and dangerous," Hubig said. "The perpetrators secretly slip substances to their victims in order to deliberately render them defenceless. The crime scenes are bars and clubs, but also people's own homes. Those affected often have no chance of noticing or fending off the attack."
Hubig described these acts as "sexual violence in a particularly severe form, and it primarily affects women." She stressed that criminal law must deliver a firm response, adding that tougher sentencing forms part of a broader strategy to better protect people, especially women, from violence.
Date-rape drugs are classified as psychotropic substances that act on the central nervous system to alter a person's mental state. They affect perception, cognition, emotions and behaviour, and are widely misused to facilitate sexual assaults and robberies.
The covert use of date-rape drugs in connection with sexual offences or robbery can already be treated as an aggravating factor under existing law. However, in 2024, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that these substances do not qualify as a "dangerous weapon" within the meaning of the Criminal Code. As a result, crimes involving date-rape drugs are not classified as a particularly serious form of sexual assault or robbery, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Instead, the current minimum sentence stands at three years. The new draft law aims to close this gap by raising the minimum to five years and legally equating the use of dangerous substances with the use of a weapon or dangerous tool in the commission of robbery or sexual offences.
The draft legislation will now move to the Bundestag, Germany's federal parliament, for debate and a vote.
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