Date rape drugged slipped to Olympic champ
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - April 22, 2008 Grishuk, who won Olympic gold medals for Russia in ice dancing
in 1994 and 1998, was attending a business meeting at the St. Regis
Monarch Beach on April 12 when she began to feel ill and numb,
sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.
While eating dinner, she spotted a partially dissolved pill in
the bottom of her drink. Investigators later found another
dissolved pill in the bottom of a drink she ordered in the hotel's
lounge.
Amormino says toxicology tests that came back Tuesday were
positive for GHB, but it wasn't immediately clear how the pills got
in Grishuk's drinks or who put them there.
"How somebody was able to do that, I honestly don't know, but
it appears that somebody, for whatever reason, attempted to drug
her," he said.
GHB, or gamma hydroxy butyrate, can cause breathing problems,
loss of consciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration labels GHB a
"predatory drug" that can be mixed with alcohol to reduce
resistance from a victim before a sexual assault. It is also
popular with teenagers at raves and is sometimes used by
bodybuilders for its anabolic effects, the DEA said.
The 36-year-old Grishuk is a Ukrainian native who now lives in
Los Angeles.
An e-mail to Grishuk was not immediately returned. A spokeswoman
at the St. Regis did not immediately return a call for comment.