Awakened by a rustling noise, I assumed my baby was ready to be fed. I waited for the next telltale sign of hunger - a healthy scream. Instead, there was just more rustling.
I decided to get up as this gymnastics was certain to build up an appetite, and I was going to be in demand! I got up and looked over to the bassinet, which was absolutely still.
Panic struck. I did what I think I have done 257 times in my life as a mother - checked to see whether he was breathing. As I approached the bassinet, I stopped dead in my tracks. There in front of me was an arm - reaching through the louvre window and deeply probing my baby bag.
I jumped back into bed and started to smack my husband around, eventually waking him. After all, this certainly was his area of responsibility. I'd been taking care of the breastfeeding! So, he made loud caveman grunts and armed only with his testosterone, he chased the intruder away.
Drugged in sleep
The story could have gone differently, as it has on a number of occasions lately. I woke up, but, perhaps, that was that maternal thing, where you wake just before the baby cries, or wake as the baby cries all five times during the night, while your husband wakes the next morning congratulating you and the baby on sleeping through the night.
According to John Azar from King Alarm, a number of incidents have occurred in which the victims of a robbery have awoken to see the house ransacked and are surprised they didn't wake up in the commotion; so surprised, they suspect they were drugged.
Likewise, Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields also notes that he has heard stories that persons feel they were drugged, but adds that he has no evidence to support these suspicions, and does not know of a chemical that is in use for this purpose.
The truth is, we don't really appreciate how deeply we sleep, a bit like the fact that most of us will deny wholeheartedly the possibility that we ever snore. Our bed companions might have a different story if given the chance.
Yet, there are anaesthetics that are odourless and even pleasant to inhale; some are administered with a vaporiser such as diethyl ether or chloroform, and there are gases that produce general anaesthesia by inhalation, including nitrous oxide, cyclopropane and xenon. These chemicals I do not think are readily available at the local pharmacy, but who is to say, Jamaican criminals are certainly resourceful.
The use of drugs, such as gamma hydroxybutrate (GHB), ketamine and benzodiazephines, in robberies and rapes is well documented. And the fact of the matter is, we have developed some amount of expertise in the trade of illegal substances, so one could only assume that pretty much anything is available.
Hungry crime beast
Yet, whether these crimes are occurring while the victims sleep as logs or because they have been drugged does not alter the fact that they are happening all around us.
Crime in Jamaica, an already uncontrollable beast, is now being fuelled by hunger. A hungry beast is not one I wish to encounter, nor is it one I would put anything past.
We have a new minister of national security, we need to hear the plan of how we are going to fight this beast.
If we cannot join together and fight it, then our only option will be to run away from it, or die by it.
Minister MacMillan, tell us how we are going to sleep easy!
Tara Clivio is a freelance writer; for feedback, email columns@gleanerjm.com.
