Two Vancouver women have issued a date rape warning on the Facebook website, alleging that they had their drinks spiked during a recent party at the University of British Columbia.

Brittany Dolynchuk, a 19-year-old UBC student, said she blacked out while enjoying a night out with friends at a fraternity party last Friday and can only assume that someone dropped something into her drink.

"Everything was a huge blur,'' she said.

After experiencing something similar at the same party, her friend Stephanie Ataliotis checked into a hospital the next morning. Tests showed that she had gamma hydroxybutyric acid, called GHB, in her system, the drug that is commonly used in date rape cases.

Fortunately, the two women weren't sexually assaulted, they said.

But in a bid to warn others about the dangers of leaving drinks unattended at parties, the two have started a forum on Facebook, a social-networking website that attempts to connect people with each other's friends.

Their concerns were underscored on Thursday when Vancouver police appealed for more information about Fernando Manuel Alves, a Burnaby, B.C., pub owner who is accused of offences against four women aged between 20 and 30 years old in Vancouver and the surrounding area.

A prominent member of B.C.'s ball-hockey community, Alves was released on bail after appearing in court Thursday, charged with spiking women's drinks and sexual assault.

He had been arrested on Sept. 8 and charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of administering a noxious substance.

During a news conference Wednesday, Const. Tim Fanning, a spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department, reminded the public to be aware of the risks involved in going out to bars or clubs with a new acquaintance and nobody else.

Marissa MacDonald, a spokeswoman for Student Nurses for Clean Drinking, is also telling women to be careful.

"When somebody's been drugged, it just looks like they just had way too much to drink," she said.

"We understand that drugs, when mixed with alcohol, can potentially increase the effects up to eight times,'' she cautioned.